LIBRARY  OF  THE  THEOLOGICAL  SEMINARY 

PRINCETON,  N.  J. 


Presented  by 


rr\r<3.\Alu\\c7^rr\  S\Arc7\n. 


BV  811.5  .D167 
Dana,  Daniel, 
Baptology 


l-ir>^^L^ 


^    '^Cc^,  .^/>> 


BAPTOLOGY 


MY  BOOTMAKER  AND    I 


ilToiJcs  of  i3a|)ti0m 


BY 


OLD  STUDENT. 

SECOIS"D    EDITION. 


"O  foolish  Galatians !  who  hath  hewitched.yonV— St.  Paul. 
"  Give  instruction  to  a  wise  man,  and  he  will  be  yet  wiser : 

Teach  a  just  man,  and  he  will  increase  in  learning."— Pz-or.  ix.  9. 
"Let  me  enti-eat  you  to  study  well  the  word  of  God  on  this  subject.' 

£icke7'steth. 


NEW-YORK: 
PUBLISHED    BY    H.    B.    DURAISTD, 

11    BIBLE    HOUSE. 

1868. 


Entered,  according  to  Act  of  Congress,  in  the  year  1S60, 

By  Daniel  Dana,  Jr., 

In  the  Clerk's  Office  of  the  United  States  District  Court  fo   the  Southern  District  of 

New  York. 


CONTENTS 


INTR0DUCTI01S-, 

Page 
The  dust  disturbed  of  a  pulverized  village 5 

THE  FIRST  TALK. 

ON   MODES    OF   BAPTISM. 

My  Bootmaker  in  trouble — The  Library — The  Soul  doctor — Ex- 
citement about  Modes  of  Baptism — Christians  miserable  be- 
cause not  immersed — John  the  Baptist — Henry  Clay — ^A 
seeming  challenge  made  real 7 

THE  SECOND  TALK. 

JOHN   THE   BAPTIST. 

The  challenge  declined — Clouds  of  witnesses — Ignorant  sincerity 
— John  did  not  go  into  the  river — Absurd  ! — TVhat  is  it  ? — 
"Who  was  John  the  Baptist  ? — Moses  ? — And  what  did  they  to 
the  first  and  to  the  last  High  Priest? — Daniel  Webster  and 
the  Arithmetic  of  Heaven — Picture — Roman  Catacombs — 
Font 16 

THE  THIRD  TALK. 

PHILIP   ASD   THE   EUXUCH. 

Baptists  bothered  by  the  Catacombs — "  Foolish  Galatians  " — Bad 
Logic  —  Crotchety  Fanaticism  —  Anabaptists  —  The  Eunuch 
reading  Isaiah — ^Parkhurst  and  Murdock. 28 

THE  FOURTH  TALK. 

CHEEFLT  ABOUT   WORDS. 

Baptize — Great  men  not  secured  against  prejudice  and  perversion 
— Questions  easily  asked — "Words  of  many  meanings — Let, 
•prevent,  Lawyer,  drink,  travel,  travail — Many  modes — "Water 
a  symbol— St.  Peter 34 


4  CONTENTS. 

THE  FIFTH  TALK. 

•mE   WORD   AUGUMENT. 

Page 
"Immersion  and  nothing  else" — Imputed    presumption — ^Forty 

years — Certain  knowledge — Hard  and  revolting  work — A 
quadruped  not  necessarily  a  horse — Israel  where  and  how 
Baptized — Pentecost — Baptizo  ? — Greek  enough — Christ's  re- 
buke— Baptisms  of  Cups,  &c. — "Waterpots — St.  Paul — "  Di- 
vers washings  " — Dip,  in  the  New  Testament  does  not  mean 
Immersion 43 

THE  SIXTH  TALK. 

BAPTO. 

"  Actions  speak  louder  than  words  " — Lament  of  the  rich  man — 
Luke,  xyi.  24 — Is  this  dip  an  immersion  ? — John,  xiii.  26 — 
"Was  this  an  immersion  ? — Rev.  xrx.  13 — This  was  a  sprink- 
ling— Anabaptist  convulsions 50 

THE  SEVENTH  TALK. 

.    THE  WORD   ARGUMENT. 

A  sigh  of  resignation — Decoys — Sunday  processions — ^Perversions 
— Impressions  of  the  multitude — Never-forgotten  texts — 
Profane  mockery — ^The  laughers — Edged  tools — Christian 
love — Much  water — Joh7i,  iii,  23 — Many  waters — Show  of 
language — Burials  in  the  time  and  country  of  the  Apostles — 
Ignorance  of  Commentators — St.  Paul — Graves  of  Christ  and 
of  Lazurus — Spiritual  death  and  burial 63 


INTEODTJCTION". 


A  VERY  simple  and  homely  fact  may  suffice  to  intro- 
duce this  little  Essay  to  do  good.  It  is  a  labor  of  love ; 
and  if  so  received,  the  laborer  \yill  be  satisfied.  In  a 
country  village  of  the  usual  religious  divisions,  the  Bap- 
tists had  produced  an  agitating  sensation  on  their  pecu- 
liar views  of  the  mode  of  baptism.  From  other  denom- 
inations, they  had  drawn  several  proselytes  ;  and  others 
they  had  rendered  uncomfortable,  by  a  violent  agitation 
of  the  modal  questiou.  Among  these  was  my  not 
unintelligent  ^lethodist  boot-maker.  From  successive 
talks  with  him,  comes  this  little  work ; — thus  not  un- 
called for. 

Always  courteously  respectful,  boots  in  hand,  he  en- 
ters my  study  with  a  less  cheerful  *'  good  morning"  than 
usual,  and  is  invited  to  an  arm-chair. 


6  INTRODUCTION. 

His  rueful  countenance  tells  of  a  kindly  spirit  ill  at 
ease.  His  eyes  glance  around  my  library;  and  ttie 
Talks  herein  recorded,  for  tke  benefit  of  other  like- 
troubled  spirits,  begin  as  in  the  following  pages. 


f  f 


THE    FIRST    TALK. 


ON  MODES   OF  BAPTISM. 

My  Bootmaker.     "You  have  many  books  here." 

I.  "Some,  certainly;  yet  more  than  fifty  years  of 
gathering  should  have  done  better." 

B.  M.  "A  great  many  books,  /  think.  Have  you 
read  'em  all  ?" 

I.  "  Perhaps  not  all.  Of  all  of  them  I  know  some- 
thing, I  believe  ;  and  all  about  some  of  them,  perhaps  ; 
but  to  know  all  about  all  of  them,  I  may  not  pretend. 
But  why  so  strange  a  question  from  one  so  modest  ?" 
■  B.  M.  "  I  beg  your  pardon,  but  I  am  in  trouble  of 
mind,  and  was  thinking  that,  perhaps,  with  all  these 
books,  you  might  help  me." 

/.  "  A  quite  sufficient  apology  for  your  inquiry,  my 
good  friend ;  and  as  a  soul-doctor,  bound  '  to  minister  to 
minds  diseased,'  very  gladly  shall  be  done  whatever  may 
be  in  my  power  in  your  case.  But  what  can  be  dis- 
turbing your  mind  ?  I  am  wont  to  reckon  you  among 
the  happiest  of  the  happy.     Why  are  you  not  ?" 

B.  M.  "  Well,  I  suppose  you  know  there  is  a  good 
deal  of  excitement  among  us  about  the  right  mode  of 
baptism." 

/.    "  So  is  it  said;  and  that  it  is  disquieting  the  spirit- 


8  THE  FIRST  TALK. 

■ual  peace  of  some,  and  acting  not  favorably  on  tlie  usual 
domestic  and  social  tranquillity  of  our  little  town.  But 
that  the  unhappy  influence  had  so  far  spread  as  to 
include  such  as  you  I  had  not  supposed.  As  a  good 
Methodist,  what  have  you  to  do  with  the  exciting  con- 
troversy ?     Why  allow  it  to  trouble  you  ?" 

B.  M.  "I  think  I  should  not  have  allowed  it  to 
trouble  me,  or  had  any  thing  to  do  with  the  excite- 
ment ;  but  my  good  Baptist  neighbors  have  been  inter- 
esting themselves  in  our  spiritual  condition  till  myself 
and  family  are  really  uncomfortable." 

I.  "So  your  good  neighbors  have  succeeded,  no 
doubt  to  their  own  great  satisfaction,  in  awakening 
yourself  and  family  to  the  danger  of  not  having  been 
immersed  when  you  made  your  profession  of  religion  ? 
That's  the  real  source  of  your  trouble,  I  suppose  ?" 

B.  M.    "  Yes,  that  is  it,  I  must  confess." 

I.  "  And  without  even  blushing  !  Well,  indeed,  we 
are  living  in  strange  times,  when  even  sensible  people, 
not  only  do  and  suffer  such  strange  and  unreasonable 
things  as  to  bring  their  good  sense  into  serious  question, 
but  even  not  seldom  to  derange  their  intellects,  and 
sometimes  even  to  destroy  their  lives !  But  rouse 
yourself  to  your  wonted  sober-mindedness.  Cast  oft 
the  spell  from  your  spirit,  and  tell  me  how  they  have 
managed  to  disturb  your  faith  so  fearfully — those  good 
neighbors !" 

B.  M.  "  Well,  they  have  brought  to  my  house  tracts 
and  books  about  immersion,  to  show  that  it  is  the  only 
Scriptural  mode  of  baptism — the  only  mode  mentioned 
in  the  New  Testament — that  it  only  is  baptism,  and  that 
no  intelligent  and  thoughtful  person  can  be  really  satis- 
fied without  it." 


ON   MODES   OF   BAPTISM.  9 

/.  "Indeed!  that  is  really  high  ground  to  take  for 
the  denunciation  of  the  whole  of  Christendom  for  more 
than  fifteen  centuries,  and  all  but  their  own  sect  as  now 
existing  !     Is  that  all  ?" 

B.  M.  "  0  no ;  they  say  that  we  can  not  be  Christians 
at  all,  if  not  immersed." 

/.  "And  you  have  opened  your  doors  and  exposed 
your  family  to  such  insanity  of  fanaticism  ?  Well  may 
you  be  thankful  that  your  good  wife,  while  certainly 
not  less  sensible,' is  much  less  excitable  than  you  are." 

B.  M.  "I  think  she  is  in  no  danger  of  being  de- 
ranged ;  but  she  was  very  much  shocked  last  night, 
when  the  Baptist  minister  declared  that  he  knew  of 
hundreds  of  conscientious  professors  who  were  very 
miserable,  because  they  had  not  been  immersed  when 
they  got  religion." 

/.  "Well,  indeed,  she  might  be  shocked.  "Who 
would  not  be  shocked  by  such  a  declaration,  that  has 
any  feeling  of  pity  for  human  misery,  and  especially  for 
that  of  the  weak  and  ignorant  '  babe-s  in  Christ  ?'  But 
do  you  believe  that  strange  declaration  ?  Do  you  really 
believe  that  he  does  know  of  such  hundreds?" 

B.  M.    "  There  seems  too  much  reason  to  believe  it." 

I.  "He  seems  not  fanatical,  in  temperament — is  no 
doubt  a  sinc-erely  truthful  man,  who  would  not  knowing- 
ly misrepresent.  And  o?ie,  at  least,  you  know,  that  he 
would  rightfully  reckon  among  the  miserables?" 

B.  M.  "  Many  more  than  one." 

J.  "  Then,  indeed,  is  there  found  an  importance  in  the 
question,  which  I  had  never  supposed  belonged  to  it,  in 
the  estimation  of  any  considerate  and  intelligent  Chris- 
tian outside  of  the  Baptist  boundaries !  To  me,  very 
shocking  is  the  thought,  that  if  known  to  a  single  village 
1* 


10  THE  FIRST  TALK. 

preacher,  that  there  are  hundreds  of  believers  unhappy  be- 
cause not  having  been  baptized  by  immersion,  there  may 
be  hundreds  of  thousands^  in  our  whole  country,  thus  mis- 
erable for  lack  of  knowledge ! — that  sim^ple  knowledge 
of  the  Gospel  which  should  effectually  preclude  all  pos- 
sibility of  such  misery  from  such  a  source  !  How  humil- 
iating !  how  lamentable !" 

B.M.'^  What  simple  knowledge  of  the  Gospel  do  you 
mean,  that  should  prevent  such  misery  ?" 

/.  ''And  does  a  Scripture-reading  Christian  ask  such 
a  question  ?  Why,  of  course,  I  mean  that  true,  childlike, 
heart-knowledge,  which  has  learned  of  Christ  that 
'mercy  is  better  than  sacrifice  ;' — that  '  love  is  the  prin- 
cipal thing;' — ^that  'circumcision  is  nothing,  and  that 
uncircumcision  is  nothing,'  where  love  is  not;  that 
modes  are  nothing,  where  obedience  of  the  heart  and 
spirit  is  not — where  the  soul-prayer  of  the  penitent  pub- 
lican is  not ;  and  that  where  this  true  evangelical  obedi- 
ence is,  with  a  '  charity  that  never  faileth,' — such  as  the 
Good  Samaritan's — no  mistake  or  want  of  knowledge 
about  modes,  or  about  any  thing  so  comparatively  unes- 
sential, can  ever  be  of  so  serious  account  as  rightly  to 
disturb  the  spiritual  peace  of  any  true  believer  I  In 
short  I  allude  to  that  knowledge  of  God,  for  the  lack  of 
which  ^people  perish^  by  folly,  vice,  crime,  insanity  and 
suicide." 

B.M.  "But  the  Baptists  say,  belief  and  obedience 
require  baptism,  which  is  nothing  else  than  immersion." 

L  "  And  the  strange  fancy,  that  there  may  be  truth 
in  a  figment  so  extravagantly  fanatical  as  the  exclusion 
of  all  the  unimmersed  from  the  fold  of  Christ,  has  dis- 
turbed you^  as  well  as  others?" 

M,  B.  "Yes,  that  can't  be  denied.     Their  confident 


ON  MODES   OF   BAPTISM.  11 

manner  of  declaring  the  Bible  all  on  their  side,  and  the 
great  authorities  they  bring  forward  to  support  them, 
have  troubled  me  very  much.  Indeed,  they  have 
almost  driven  me  into  the  water ;  as  already  they  have 
several  of  our  people,  and  some  from  other  congrega- 
tions in  this  place,  as  you  must  know  very  well." 

I.  "Yes,  I  do  know  it  quite  well,  and  that  so  they 
have  profaned  the  Holy  ISTame  in  which  they  had  been 
already  baptized !  '  0,  foolish  Galatians  !'  In  astonish- 
ment, so  exclaimed  St.  Paul  on  a  not  unlike  occasion : — 
'  O  foolish  Gralatians !  who  hath  bewitched  you  ?' 

"  The  Gralatian  disciples,  as  you  remember,  had  been 
fanaticized  into  the  vain  belief  that  the  Gospel  of  Christ 
was  not  perfect  and  sufficient,  but  in  connection  with 
the  ceremonial  law  of  Moses.  False  teachers  had  led 
them  away  from  the  truth  by  boldly  preaching  the 
necessity  of  a  Jewish  mode  of  entrance  into  the  Chris- 
tian Church.  By  ardent  zealots  for  a  mode  the  '  foolish 
Galatians,'  in  their  weakness,  had  allowed  themselves  to 
be  browbeaten  from  their  true  faith  in  the  completeness 
of  the  Gospel — 'the  fulness  of  Christ,'  as  taught  by  the 
Apostles. '  Do  you  discern  any  likeness  between  your 
modern  instance  and  this  ancient  one  of  the  foolish 
Galatians?" 

B.M.  "I  don't  know  but  I  do." 

I.  "  You  certainly  do.  You  can't  help  it.  The  like- 
ness is  too  strong  to  allow  of  mistake.  Be  careful  not 
to  forget  the  foolishness  of  the  Galatians.  And  be  not 
less  careful  to  feel  and  think  kindly  and  charitably  to- 
ward your  perverted  brethren.  Let  the  blame  fall 
where  due;  and  that  only  in  the  just  weight  of  Chris-- 
tian  charity.  'Even  Peter  was  to  be  blamed,'  for  giv- 
ing countenance  to  the  zealots  for  circumcision.     Nay, 


12  THE   FIRST  TALK. 

Barnabas,  'the  Son  of  Prophecy'  and  of  Consolation,' 
'  a  good  man,  fall  of  the  Holy  Ghost  and  of  faith,'  to 
the  great  grief  of  the  faithful,  '  was  carried  away  with 
their  dissimulation'  in  this  matter,  ^  and  walked  not  up- 
rightly according  to  the  truth  of  the  Gospel.'  How  strange 
of  Barnabas !  As  regards  Peter,  St.  Paul  says,  '  I  with- 
stood him  to  the  face,  because  he  was  to  be  blamed.' 
He  made  a  difference  between  his  two  fellow-apostles. 
Peter  was  the  leader  in  turning  the  back  upon  the  uncir- 
cumcised  Gentile  Christians,  denying  their  true  disciple- 
ship,  as  do  the  Baptists  towards  the  unimmersed.  In 
this  matter,  Peter's  supremacy  is  not  more  to  be  contro- 
verted than  envied.  So  with  St.  Paul,  let  your  charity 
fail  not.  Be  kind  to  all :  to  the  perverted,  and  to  the 
perverters.  Yet  these,  you  may  be  allowed,  with  some 
of  St.  Paul's  honest  indignation,  'to  withstand  to  the 
face,'  and  tell  them  in  your  own  defence,  and  for  their 
good — if  God  will — that  there  is  not  a  single  case 
OF  baptism  in  the  Kew  Testament  which  can  be 

PBj^ED  TO  BE  AFTER  THEIR  EXCLUSIVE  MODE,  BY  IM- 
MERSION." 

B.M.  "Is  that  so,  indeed?" 

Z  "It  is  verily  so,  indeed  and  in  truth.  With  the 
noble  Bereans, '  search  the  Scriptures,  and  you  shall  find 
it  so.'  "     (Acts,  xvii.  10—) 

B.  M.  "  Well,  I  must  say  you  surprise  me  very 
much;  for  not  only  the  Baptists,  but  many  others, 
always  seem  to  me  to  speak  of  the  baptism  of  our  Lord 
by  John  the  Baptist,  and  of  the  Ethiopian  eunuch  by 
Philip,  as  if  no  one  every  supposed  them  to  have  been 
baptized  in  any  other  mode  than  by  immersion,  as  the 
Baptists  now  baptize  !     I  alwa3^s  supposed  so." 

/.    "  It  is  no  wonder,  then,  that  you  came  so  near  the 


ON  MODES  OF  BAPTISM.  13 

river.  The  wonder  is  that  you  kept  out  of  it.  As  we 
may  see  hereafter,  our  Lord  was  not  immersed ;  and  if 
He  had  been,  the  mode  of  a  Jewish  ceremony — by  the 
founder  of  a  temporary  Jewish  sect — as  was  John's  bap- 
tism, could  have  been  of  no  binding  authority — but  with 
foolish  Gralatians — in  the  Christian  Church.  Your  pre- 
judice is,  no  doubt,  a  very  common  one,  and  a  chief 
instrument  used  by  the  Baptists  in  making  proselytes." 

B.  M.  "  But  are  not  men,  not  Baptists,  sometimes 
found  to  have  preferred  baptism  by  immersion,  who  can 
hardly  be  supposed  under  the  influence  of  mere  preju- 
dice ?     Henry  Clay,  for  an  example  ?" 

I.  "  Henry  Clay  was  not  baptized  by  immersion. 
It  is  a.  sectarian  slander.  Often  has  it  been  said  and 
published,  that  Mr.  Clay  was  immersed  in  a  pond  on  his 
estate,  though  more  than  once  corrected  by  the  clergy- 
man who  baptized  him,  and  who,  soon  after,  published 
an  account  of  the  baptism,  and  that  it  was  by  pouring 
water  on  the  head,  in  the  usual  way  of  the  Church,  in 
which  Mr.  Clay  made  his  confession  of  Christ.  Wi^ed 
were  the  authors  of  this  fable  about  Mr.  Clay.  Unfor- 
tunate the  deceived  deceivers  who  propagate  it.  But 
though  your  example  will  not  hold,  yet,  as  you  intimate, 
there  have  been,  and  are,  no  doubt,  many  men  of  high 
intellect  and  great  name  whose  preference  has  been  in 
favor  of  immersion,  erroneously  supposing  it  to  be  the 
authorized  and  primitive  mode.  That  these  men  were 
above  the  influence  of  all  prejudice,  however,  can  never 
be  known,  if  even  supposable ;  for,  in  all  ages, prejudices, 
often  the  most  preposterous,  are  known  to  have  been 
held  by  men  of  the  highest  mark  for  learning  and  intel- 
lect. There  may  be  no  man  without  prejudices  of  some 
sort.     But  this  of  yours  must  be  removed  to  make  room 


14:  THE  FIEST  TALK. 

for  the  return  of  your  peace.  But  are  you  sure  of  being 
quite  willing  to  have  it  removed  ?  Willing  as  was  Na- 
thaniel, to  learn  that  good  might  come  out  of  Nazareth?'^ 

B.  M.  "  Certainly,  more  than  willing  to  be  satisfied 
and  at  rest  with  regard  to  the  mode  of  my  baptism." 

/.  "  Well,  then,  strive  and  pray  that  you  may  retain 
what  good  sense  you  have  left,  that  you  may  help  me  to 
examine  the  question  fairly  and  well ;  and  there  is  no 
risk  in  promising  you  that  you  shall  soon  be  radically 
cured  of  the  sickness  of  your  soul,  if  its  source  be  in  the 
TRode  of  a  rite  or  sacrament.  If  you  shall  find  it  conven- 
ient, come  again  to-morrow,  and  then  we'll  look  into  the 
fancied  strongholds  of  the  Baptists  on  the  banks  of  the 
Jordan  and  in  the  wilderness  of  Gaza.  And  if  there,  in 
either  place,  we  find  any  certain  proof  of  an  immersion 
after  the  manner  of  the  Baptists,  we  will  come  out 
frankly  in  their  favor  as  being  all  right,  and  the  rest  of 
Christendom  all  wrong,  and  always  wrong.  In  the 
mean  time  you  may  try,  gently,  your  withstanding 
forii^ula  upon  your  good  neighbor,  the  specially  amia- 
ble and  solicitous  'Busy-body  in  other  men's  matters.' 
But  remember,  in  all  charity,  that  he  may  be  a  very 
good  and  pious  man,  although  his  small  knowledge  be 
never  so  disproportionate  to  his  much  zeal.  Then  be 
very  gentle  in  withstanding  him  to  the  face.  If  he  rail, 
rail  not  thou.  If  reviled,  revile  not  again.  Bear  and 
forbear ;  and  when  about  to  leave  you,  then,  in  the 
kindly  spirit  and  tones  of  fraternal  love,  say  to  him  that, 
when  he  can  point  out  to  you,  in  the  New  Testament,  a 
single  well-defined,  proven  and  unquestionable  case  of 
Christian  baptism  by  immersion,  in  the  manner  of  his 
sect,  you  will  consent  to  be  plunged  by  his  minister,  and 
so  confess  that  you  had  never  before  been  baptized." 


ON  MODES  OF  BAPTISM.  15 

B.  M.  "It  sliocks  me  to  think  of  such  a  seeming  chal- 
lenge." 

/.  ''Shocking  it  might  be,  but  for  the  perfect  cer- 
tainty that  no  such  case  can  be  found  in  Grod's  Word. 
The  condition  may  put  him  upon  the  vain  search,  with 
all  the  clerical  aid  he  can  procure ;  and  when  found  to 
be  in  vain,  I  see  not  how  they  are  to  escape  the  ne- 
cessity of  somewhat  lowering  their  too  arrogant  preten- 
sions." 

B.  M.  "  Well,  that  will  be  something  gained,  if  we 
can  induce  them  so  to  take  the  laboring  oar." 

L  "  Try  it,  you  may  with  perfect  safety  ;  and,  if  you 
succeed,  it  may  be  something  better  than  amusing  to 
see  how  they  will  run  their  boat  into  shallow  water,  if 
not  absolutely  aground." 

B.  M.  ''Of  that,  I  have  no  hope.  They  will  never 
allow  themselves  to  be  in  the  wrong,  I  thiiik ;  whatever 
the  evidence  may  be  that  they  are." 

/.  "Perhaps  not.  They  may  not  'deserve  to  have 
themselves  convinced ;'  but  I  am  taking  it  for  granted 
that  you  deserve  and  desire  to  be ;  and,  as  a  soul-doctor, 
I  must  endeavor  to  cure  your  soul-sickness,  and  I  expect 
you  to  observe  my  prescriptions." 

B.  M.   "I  will  try  to  follow  them.'' 

I.  "Do  so,  and  with  God's  help,  your  cure  is  unques- 
tionable. To-morrow  I  shall  hope  to  be  prepared  to 
render  you  some  relief     Will  you  come  ?" 

B.  M.   "  Thank  you.     I  will  endeavor  to." 

And  so  my  good  Boot-maker  retires  with  symptoms 
of  a  heart  less  ill  at  ease,  and  of  hopes  of  returning 
health. 


THE  SECOND  TALK 


JOHN"  THE   BAPTIST. 

My  Bootmaker.  "Good  morning,  sir.  By  your 
permission,  I  come  for  another  talk." 

/.  "  Good  morning.  Glad  to  see  you.  What  of  your 
good  neighbor  ?" 

B.  M.  "  He  seems  very  confident  that  you  are  entirely 
wrong  in  asserting  that  the  New  Testament  has  no 
provable  case  of  baptism  by  immersion." 

/.  "  Did  he  find  one,  and  produce  the  proof  ?" 

B.  M.  "  No ;  he  said  such  cases  were  too  plenty  and 
plain  to  need  proof;  and  he  showed  me  a  long  list  of 
authors  of  different  Churches,  who  testify  that  our  Lord 
was  immersed,  and  that  John's  baptism  was  always  by 
immersion;  that  Philip  baptized  the  Eunucli  in  the 
same  way ;  and  that  it  was  the  uniform  practice." 

/.  "  So,  having  declined  your  fair  challenge,  as  not 
worth  his  notice,  he  overwhelmed  you  with  '  a  cloud  of 
witnesses?'  He  made,  of  course,  the  great-sounding 
titles  and  names  of  men  '  wise  above  what  is  written,'  to 
testify  against  you  by  wresting  Scripture  from  its  true 
meaning,  and  so  extorting  senses  from  it  which  the  in- 
spired writers  could  never  have  dreamed  of; — the  most 
dangerous  of  false  witnesses!" 


JOHN"  THE   BAPTIST.  17 

B.M.  "False  witnesses?" 

/.  "Yes,  tlie  worst,  as  most  injurious  of  false  wit- 
nesses, are  they  wlio  falsify  the  Word  of  God,  either 
intentionally  or  ignorantly,  by  declaring  it  to  say  what 
it  does  not  say.  Your  neighbor  is  no  doubt  sincere  in 
the  belief  that  his  authorities  are  all  right,  and  that  I  am 
ignorant  of  them ;  or  very  presumptuous  in  not  submit- 
ting to  tbem.     He  probably  said  as  much?" 

B.  M.  "  He  did,  indeed  ;  and  nearly  as  you  suppose. 
He  quoted  one  of  them  as  saying,  '  The  idea  of  going 
into  a  river  for  the  purpose  of  baptizing  in  it  by  sprink- 
ling on  the  face,  or  pouring  on  the  head,  is  too  absurd 
to  be  entertained.' " 

/.  "And  that  is  what  he  thinks  not  only  a  good 
argument,  but  proof  positive,  that  John  baptized  the 
Messiah  in  the  same  mode  that  himself  had  been  bap- 
tized by  his  own  minister  ? 

B.  M.  "I  suppose  so.  He  seemed  quite  satisfied  that 
it  settled  the  question." 

/.  "Well,  to  pass  now  the  fact  that  John  did  not  go 
into  the  river^  we  shall  see  whom  best  the  absurd  boot 
will  fit.  Absurd  is  not  a  hard  word  to  say,  and  often 
most  easy,  it  seems,  to  such  as  know  not  its  exact  mean- 
ing and  so  use  it  absurdly.  Whatever  is  opposed  to 
manifest  truth  and  common  sense,  may  be  declared 
absurd.      To  say  six  and  six  make  ten  is  absurd. 

"As  clearly  inconsistent  with  reason,  or  the  plain  dic- 
tates of  common  sense,  in  either  matters  of  fact  or  of 
doctrine,  to  allow  the  decision  of  any  modern  sect  against 
the  teaching  of  the  whole  church  universal  for  fifteen 
hundred  years  would  be  manifestly  absurd. 

"  To  walk  into  a  river  to  keep  out  of  the  wet  would  be 
absurd ;  but  it  would  not  be,  in  order  to  wash  your  feet 


18  THE  SECOND  TALK. 

or  your  hands,  or  both.  Nor  would  it  be  absurd,  in  a 
hot  day,  for  one  to  walk  barefooted  into  a  river  to  wash 
his  face,  on  the  way  from  the  field  to  his  dinner.  The 
*  idea,'  then,  so  profanely  flouted  by  your  friend,  is  any 
thing  but  absurd.  Of  that  enough: — more  than  it 
merits,  but  that  the  ahsurdities  of  your  friend  must  be 
exposed  for  your  benefit.  Though  not  yet  quite  done 
with  it,  I  hope  you  are  satisfied  in  this  case  ?" 

B.M.  "  Quite  satisfied." 

/.  "  But,  in  this  matter  of  '  John  the  Baptizer,'  it  may 
be  well  to  begin  at  the  beginning.  Then,  who  was  this 
John?" 

B.M.  "He  was  the  Forerunner  of  Christ,  who  had 
been  prophesied  of  by  Isaiah  and  Malachi." 

I.  "Eight:  not  a  disciple,  or  follower,  but  a  forerun- 
ner— a  herald  to  proclaim  His  coming ;  a  pioneer  to  pre- 
pare the  way  before  Him.  John  was  the  'greatest,'  as 
well  as  last,  of  the  Jewish  prophets,  as  being  the  har- 
binger and  the  introducer  of  Christ  to  Israel ;  yet  the 
least  Christian  prophet  or  teacher,  whose  ofiice  it  is  to 
proclaim,  or  preach,  Christ  crucified,  risen,  ascended 
into  heaven,  is,  in  spiritual  position,  greater  than  John." 

B.M.  "Is  that  what  is  meant  by  John's  being  more 
than  a  prophet,  greatest  of  woman  ,born,  and  yet  less 
than  the  least  in  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven  ?" 

/.  "  Ko  doubt  such  is  the  true  meaning." 

B.  M.  "  Was  not  John  a  member  of  the  priesthood  ?" 

/.  "  He  was  a  son  of  a  priest  of  the  temple,  and  so 
born  to  the  priesthood ;  but,  being  Divinely  consecrated 
from  the  womb  to  his  high  and  holy  office  of  Messiah's 
herald,  he  seems  not  to  have  officiated  in  the  Aaronic 
priesthood.  An  even  higher  office  was  John's :  it  was 
to  bear  witness  to  the  people  that  Jesus  was  the  Son  of 


JOH^  THE  BAPTIST.  19 

God,  and  before  the  eyes  of  men  as  a  Divinely  commis- 
sioned prophet,  to  manifest  His  consecration  to  the 
Messiahship!  Not  that  Christ  needed  consecration, — 
God  forbid  ! — ^but  the  people  needed  the  manifestation, 
and  the  Levitical  Law  of  Kighteousness  needed  to  be 
fulfilled." 

B.  M.  "The  Levitical  law?  Is  that  what  our  Lord 
meant  by  the  fulfilment  of  all  righteousness?" 

I.  "  Certainly ;  for  the  moral  law  could  not  apply. 
The  original  meaning  of  righteousness  is,  '  conformity 
to  the  Divine  Law.'  So  is  it  here  employed  by  the 
Saviour,  by  whom  it  was  declared  that,  though  it  was 
to  pass  away,  it  should  first  be  all  fulfilled.  Until 
*  nailed  to  the  cross'  the  old  law  remained  in  force,  and 
the  successors  of  Moses  and  Aaron  our  Lord  com- 
manded to  be  honored  and  obeyed.  On  this  divine 
principle  it  was  that  He  said  to  John,  'Thus  it  becometh 
us  to  fulfil  all  righteousness.'  With  John,  this  reason 
for  his  baptizing  the  Messiah  was  conclusive.  He  per- 
ceives that,  in  this  office,  he  is  specially  to  testify  to  the 
Jews  and  to  the  world  that  *  The  desire  of  all  nations' 
is  'come,'  as  a  Great  High-Priest,  and  as  such  must  be 
manifested  to  Israel  as  the  Law  of  Eighteousness  pre- 
scribes." '  ^ 

B,M,  "And  how  is  that?" 

I.  "As  Moses  was  commanded  to  consecrate  to  the 
Priesthood  Aaron  and  his  sons.  God  commanded 
Moses  to  wash  Aaron  and  his  sons  with  water — and 
he  obeyed  the  command.  *  And  Moses  brought  Aaron 
and  his  sons,  and  washed  them  with  water.'  Moses  was 
a  prophet,  as  was  also  John  the  Baptist.  As  Aaron,  a 
type  of  Christ,  was  set  apart  by  Moses,  to  the  typical 
High -Priesthood,  so  was  Christ,  the  real  High-Priest,  in 


20  THE   SECOND   TALK. 

the  fulfilment  of  tlie  typical  law  of  rigliteousness,  set 
apart  or  consecrated  by  John.  As  Aaron  was  washed, 
or  baptized,  and  anointed  by  Moses,  so  was  Christ  bap- 
tized by  John,  and  anointed  by  the  Holy  Spirit." 

B.  31.  "  And  what  was  the  mode  of  the  washing  or 
baptism  of  Aaron  and  his  sons  ?" 

I.  "  Hear  the  Divine  command  !  ^  Thus  shall  thou  do 
unto  ikejn  to  cleanse  them :  SPKINKLE  tuaier  of  purifying 
upon  them.''  Such  was  the  baptism  of  Aaron  the  type. 
Why  should  that  of  the  Great  Antitype  be  different  ? 
can  you  tell  me  why  ?" 

B.  M.  "•  Certainly  I  can  not.  But  our  Lord  was  bap- 
tized in  Jordan  ?" 

/.  "  Yes,  and  the  Baptists  think  it  absurd  to  go  into  a 
river  to  be  sprinkled.  They  might  also  think  it  absurd 
for  a  man  to  walk  into  a  river  to  '  kill  a  bird  over  run- 
ning water ;'  but  as  God  had  commanded  it  to  be  killed 
over  running  water,  He  might  not  think  it  absurd  that 
in  such  wise  He  had  been  obeyed ;  as  often  doubtless 
He  was  obeyed.  In  consideration  of  our  Lord's  scrupu- 
lous observance  of  all  the  requirements  of  the  law,  and  of 
His  most  solemn  declaration  that  every  jot  and  tittle  of 
it  must  be  fulfilled,  it  is  at  least  irreverent,  and  may  be 
profane,  even  to  suppose  that  His  washing,  or  baptism, 
was  not  by  sprinkling  according  to  the  ancient  ritual  I 
What,  then,  must  it  be  to  teach,  as  an  article  of  faith, 
that  He  was  immersed,  contrary  to  the  ancient  ritual, 
and  in  defiance  of  the  utter  silence  on  the  subject  of  all 
the  Evangelists  ?  The  Bible  is  full  of  illustrations  of  the 
remark  of  a  great  and  good  man,  that  '  The  very  silences 
of  the  Scripture  are  teaching.'  " 

B.  M.  "  What  are  we  taught  by  this  silence  of  the 
Evangelists?" 


JOHN  THE   BAPTIST.  21 

I.  "We  are  taught  to  'search  the  Scriptures'  then 
existing — the  Old  Testament — for  the  meaning  of  our 
Lord's  reply  to  John's  refusal  to  baptize  Him;  and 
which  so  immediately  satisfied  John.  There  is  no  other 
way  of  coming  at  the  meaning  of  ^  thus  it  becometh  us 
to  fulfil  all  righteousness,'  than  by  first  finding  what 
righteousness  is  referred  to,  and  then  how  it  w^as  to  be 
fulfilled.  And  thus  we  learn  that  our  great  High-Priest 
was  sprinkled  by  John  the  prophet,  as  Aaron  the  High- 
Priest  had  been  by  Moses  the  Prophet  fifteen  hundred 
years  before,  in  fulfillment  of  the  righteousness — the 
ritual  of  God — then  Divinely  established.  Do  you  un- 
derstand all  this  ?" 

B.  M.  "I  think  I  do.  But  what  seems  to  me  now  as 
strange  as  any  thing  about  it  is,  that  it  all  seems  so  new 
to  me.  I  seem  to  feel  that  I  have  been  reading  the 
Scriptures  with  a  veil  upon  them." 

I.  "  Or,  perhaps,  backward,  like  the  witch's  prayer. 
Kever  mind.  Let  that  pass — not,  however,  from  your 
memory,  and  without  profit.  It  would  take  a  large  book 
to  hold  all  that  neither  you  nor  I  know.  We  must 
never  think  ourselves  too  old  to  learn.  '  Neither  you 
nor  I,  sir,'  said  Daniel  Webster  to  an  anti-Trinitarian 
friend,  who  had  expressed  surprise  at  seeing  him  come 
out  of  a  Trinitarian  church,  'JSTeither  you  nor  I,  sir, 
know  any  thing  of  the  Arithmetic  of  Heaven,'  so  of 
other  things  of  heaven :  we  can  know  nothing  that  has 
not  been  revealed.  And  we  may  not  dare  to  assume 
any  thing  to  be  revealed  which  has  not  been  unmistak- 
ably. So,  certainly,  has  not  been  revealed  the  immer- 
sion of  our  Lord.  It  may,  therefore,  be  a  sinful  giving 
place  to  the  prejudice  that  there  is  even  a  shadow  of 
proof  that  He  was  plunged  into  the  waters  of  the  Jor- 


22  THE   SECOND   TALK. 

dan.     And  now,  radically  to  remove  your  last  doubt, 
take  a  reverent  look  at  this  little  picture." 

B.M.    "APlCTUKE?" 

I.  "  Aye,  a  picture.  Be  not  afraid.  It  is  not  one  of 
the  Scarlet  Lady's.  It  is  older  by  centuries  than  any 
of  her  works  of  art ;  nay,  centuries  older  than  her- 
self." 

B.  M.  " But  what  is  it?  and  what  about  it? 

I.  "  You  see,  of  course,  that  it  is  a  pictorial  represent- 
ation of  a  scene  in  which,  besides  others,  men  and  an- 
gels, looking  on,  two  charactres  are  especially  interested. 
One  stands  in  a  transparent  medium — evidently  water — 
which  reaches  the  hips ;  the  other,  on  the  outside,  has 
his  hand  over  the  head  of  the  former.  What  do  you 
suppose  it  to  represent  ?" 

B.  31,  "From  the  presence  of  angels,  I  suppose  it 
must  be  a  representation  of  something  sacred." 

I.  "  It  is,  indeed.  It  represents,  and  no  doubt  truth- 
fully, the  baptism  of  our  Lord  in  Jordan,  by  '  John  the 
Baptizer!'" 

B,  M.  "Is  it  possible?  Then  it  is  not  absurd  to  go 
into  a  river  to  be  baptized  by  pouring  or  sprinkling. 
But  where  does  this  picture  come  from?" 

/.  "It  comes  from  the  Catacombs  of  Rome.  It  is  a 
copy  of  one  of  12,000  specimens  of  the  earliest  Chris- 
tian art,  already  found  in  an  underground  city  of  the 
dead,  of  a  far  greater  extent  than  has  any  living  city  on 
the  face  of  the  earth !" 

B.M.  ''What  strange  things  you  are  telling  me! 
Not  long  since,  in  some  paper,  I  read  something  of 
the  Catacombs ;  but  I  concluded  it  a  fiction  that  I  was 
reading." 

/.  "  The  Catacombs  are  no  fiction.     They  are  a  yery 


JOHN  THE  BAPTIST.  23 

solemn  and  most  important  reality.  They  tell  things  of 
early  Christian  doctrines,  sacraments,  rites  and  usages 
which  can  not  fail  to  overthrow,  from  the  foundation, 
many  a  religious  notion,  .still  held  sacred,  both  in 
modern  Eome  and  in  modern  America.  The  Baptist 
notion  of  entire  and  exclusive  immersion,  they  place 
among  the  foundation! ess  fabrics  of  '  Foolish  Galatians.'  " 

B.  M.  ''How?  in  what  way?" 

I.  "Be  patient,  and  you  shall  see.  But  first,  as  you 
have  no  proper  and  truthful  notion  of  the  Catacombs, 
that  you  may  understand  the  validity  of  the  testimony 
borne  by  this  little  picture,  I  will  try  to  enlighten  you 
on  the  subject." 

B,  M.  "  You  will  oblige  me  very  much." 

I.  "Well,  then,  in  the  first  place,  we'll  read,  from 
these  two  books  upon  the  Catacombs,  what  was  said, 
three  years  ago,  by  an  English  author  who  had  passed 
some  years  in  their  examination ;  and  then  what,  three 
hundred  years  ago,  was  said  by  an  eminent  Italian  about 
the  same  particular  portion  of  this  huge  dominion  of 
sacred  darkness.  They  both  speak  of  one  small  section, 
or  ward,  of  the  great  city,  as  a  specimen  of  the  whole. 
The  place  they  describe  is  what  is  called,  in  modern 
papal  Eome,  the  '  Cemetery  of  Santa  Priscilla.'  It  is 
beneath  a  vineyard  which,  for  ages,  has  occupied  the 
ground  once  covered  with  the  gorgeous  palaces  of  pagan 
Eome;  now,  reduced  to  soil  for  grape  culture.  The 
English  traveller  has  been  speaking  of  another  exten- 
sive cemetery,  but  ruinous  and  unsafe,  '  remarkable  for 
the  largest  subterranean  Church  that  has  yet  been  found ; 
also  for  a  Mosaic  vaulting  in  the  roof  of  one  of  the 
chapels,  representing  Daniel  in  the  lion's  den,  and  the 
raising  of  Lazarus;'  he  speaks  of  this  as  not  only  'far 


21  THE   SECOND   TALK. 

more  extensive,'  but  as  safe  to  visit,  and  sajs,  '  There 
are  several  stories  in  it,' — that  is,  excavations  above  ex- 
cavations of  streets,  chapels,  etc., — '  and  one  of  its  galle- 
ries is  the  longest  and  straightest  I  have  ever  met  with 
in  the  Catacombs.  Some  of  the  tombs  are  ornamented 
with  portraits  of  the  deceased,  executed  with  peculiar 
force  and  expression.  At  the  mouths  of  these  may  be 
seen  lamps,  or  other  objects,  that  have  never  been  dis- 
turbed.' " 

B,  M.  "  How  very  wonderful  ?" 

I.  "  Hear,  now,  what  was  said  of  this  same  Cemetery 
of  Santa  Priscilla  some  three  hundred  years  ago,  soon 
after  the  mysteries  of  the  long-forgotten  Catacombs  had 
been  opened,  and  when  it  was  not  imagined  to  be  but  a 
fragment  of  the  great  dead  city  to  which  it  belonged. 
Speaking  of  Dion's  account  of  the  subterranean  passages 
made  by  the  Jews  in  Jerusalem,  as  places  of  safety,  on 
their  revolt  against  Hadrian,  Baronius  says:  *'This  de- 
scription of  Dion's  of  the  -underground  passages  made  by 
the  Jews,  is  also  precisely  applicable  to  the  cemeteries 
constructed  at  Eome,  in  the  caverns  of  the  Arenaria, 
which  were  not  only  used  for  the  purpose  of  burying 
the  dead,  but  likewise,  in  time  of  persecution,  as  a  hid- 
ing-place for  Christians.  Wonderful  places  are  these ! 
We  have  seen  and  often  explored  the  Cemetery  of  Pris- 
cilla, lately  discovered  and  cleared  on  the  Salarian  Way, 
at  the  third  mile-stone  from  the  city.  This,  from  its  ex- 
tent and  its  many  various  paths,  I  call  by  no  more  ap- 
propriate name  than  a  subterranean  city.  From  the 
entrance  onward  opens  out  a  principal  street  wider  than 
the  rest.  Others  diverge  from  it  at  frequent  intervals ; 
these,  again,  are  separated  off  into  narrower  ways  and 
blind  alleys.     Moreover,  as  is  the  case  in  cities,  broader 


JOHN  THE  BAPTIST.  25 

spaces  open  out  in  particular  spots,  each  like  a  kind  of 
forum,  for  holding  the  sacred  assemblies ;  these  are 
adorned  with  images  of  the  saints.  The  city  was 
amazed  at  discovering  that  she  had  in  her  suburbs 
long-concealed  towns,  now  filled  only  with  sepulchres, 
but  once  Christian  colonies  in  days  of  persecution ;  and 
she  then  more  fully  understood  what  was  read  in  docu- 
ments, or  seen  in  other  cemeteries  partially  laid  open. 
From  what  she  had  read  in  these  places  in  St.  Jerome 
or  in  Prudentius,  she  gazed  upon  them  with  lively 
astonishment,  when  she  beheld  them  with  her  own 
eyes.' " 

B,  M.  "  How  very  strange  !" 

L  "  Yes,  and  how  little^  thought  Baronius,  three  hun- 
dred years  ago,  of  the  much  known  now  of  the  Cata- 
combs ;  and  that  the  few  images  of  the  saints,  of  which 
he  speaks,  belonged  to  a  gallery,  so  to  speak,  of  nine 
hundred  miles  in  extent,  and  containing  unnumbered 
pictures  of  the  '  saints  of  all  ages,'  from  Adam  to  the 
last  of  the  Apostles,  with  myriads  of  sacred  scenes  and 
symbols,  twelve  thousand  of  which  have  been  already 
copied  and  published  for  the  world's  inspection  and  won- 
der. At  the  Astor  Library,  go  in  and  see  the  great 
work — a  cart-load  of  splendid  volumes." 

B.  M.  "Wonderful,  indeed!  And  how  like  a  new 
revelation  all  this  seems !" 

/.  "In  these  two  small  books,  you  may  find  small 
copies  of  about  a  hundred  of  these  ancient  pictures. 
You  may  take  them  home  with  you.  Study  them,  and 
show  them  to  your  family  and  friends,  and  let  them 
understand  and  be  assured  that  this  one  of  the  baptism, 
traced  most  likely  by  the  hands  of  a  martyr  of  the  first 
or  second  century,  in  a  most  solemn  manner,  explicitly 
2 


26  THE   SECOND   TALK. 

decides  the  question  against  the  Baptists  on  the  mode 
of  baptism.  Bj  the  way,  I  now  remember  another  tes- 
timony found  among  those  old  true  witnesses  against 
them,  which  may  be  more  satisfactory  to  some  minds 
than  even  the  picture  of  the  baptism  of  our  Lord  by 
John,  for  it  tells  of  Christian  baptism,  and  of  nothing 
else.  It  is  a  baptistery  or  font,  in  one  of  these  under- 
ground churches  or  chapels,  cut  out  of  the  rock.  Its 
dimensions  forbid  all  notions  of  adult  immersion.  Its 
greatest  diameter,  with  a  like  depth,  is  but  two  feet. 
This,  with  its  description  and  supposed  history,  you  will 
find  in  the  great  work  on  the  Catecombs,  in  the  Astor 
Library." 

B.  If.  "What  can  then  be  more  certain  than  that  the 
Martyr  Church  did  not  baptize  by  immersion  ?" 

/.  "  JSTothing  can  be  more  certain.  It  is  not  extrava- 
gant to  suppose  the  Apostles  Peter  and  Paul  to  have 
administered  the  sacrament  of  baptism  at  this  font,  and 
certainly  not  by  immersion  of  the  whole  body  of  a  grown 
person.  At  any  rate,  there  is  not  a  doubt  of  this  ancient 
baptismal  font  being  a  work,  if  not  of  the  first  century, 
certainly  of  the  age  of  the  pagan  persecution,  when  there 
could  have  been  no  departure  from  Apostolic  primitive 
usage.  Entire  immersion,  then,  is  not  after  the  primi- 
tive mode  of  baptism." 

B.  M.  "So  it  does  seem,  indeed." 

L  "So  is  it,  indeed.  This  doubtless  truthful  record 
in  stone,  with  the  accompanying  unfading  picture,  bears 
valid  testimony  against  the  Baptist  platform,  erected  on 
the  unsubstantial  basis  of  suppositions  and  iuferences, 
and  in  opposition  to  the  plain  teachings  of  the  Scrip- 
tures, both  of  the  Old  Testament  and  the  ISTew.  But  let 
us  take  courage.     I  hope  trustfully  that  the  good  time 


JOHN  THE  BAPTIST.  27 

may  not  be  far  distant,  when  no  Christian  will  dare  or 
desire  to  speak  or  write  of  things  revealed,  or  of  facts 
recorded,  by  inspired  men,  otherwise  than  as  the  oracles 
of  God  speak ;  and  surely  not  '  to  add  nnto,*  or  to  '  take 
away  from,'  the  words  of  Divine  revelation,  lest  the 
threatened  evils  may  befall  him  for  such  awful  presump- 
tion."    (Eev.  xxii.  18,  19.) 


THE   THIED   TALK 


PHILIP  AOT)  THE  EUNUCH. 

/.  "And  what  saj  your  Baptist  neiglibors  to  the 
argument  against  their  exclusive  theory,  which  is 
drawn  from  the  ancient  Churches  and  Cemeteries  of 
the  Martyrs?" 

B.  M.  "  It  seems  to  bother  them  some ;  but  they  say 
there  can  be  no  mistake  about  Philip  and  the  eunuch, 
and  to  that  case  they  stick  like  wax." 

I.  "  That  is  a  good  figure  enough,  and  no  man  has  a 
better  right  to  it.  But  to  what  particular  in  the  matter 
of  Phihp  and  the  eunuch  do  they  stick  like  wax  .^" 

B.  M.  "  To  their  both  going  down  into  the  water. 
Last  eveniog,  one  of  them  declared  it  a  settled  fact,  that 
in  their  own  mode  Philip  baptized  the  eunuch." 

I.  "  Did  he  say  that  both  going  down  into  the  water 
settles  the  question  ?" 

B.  M.  "  Yes,  he  said  so." 

I.  "  Then,  going  into  the  water  must  mean  going  under 
the  water.     Is  that  it  ?" 

B.  M.  "  So  they  seem  to  understand  it,  and  to  think 
it  ought  so  to  be  understood  by  everybody." 

/.  "  0,  foolish  Galatians  !  Then  Philip  the  Baptizer, 
as  well  as  the  baptized  eunuch,  went  under  the  water 


PHILIP  AND  THE  EUNUCH.  29 

And  does  their  minister  plunge  himself  every  time  lie 
plunges  a  convert  ?" 

B.  If.  (Laughing.)     "  Of  course  not." 

Z  "But  logic,  employed  on  sacred  subjects,  my  friend, 
is  no  laughing  matter.  And  if  both  their  logic  and  their 
philology  be  correct,  and  in  agreement  with  their  theory, 
then  must  their  practice  be  opposed  to  both,  unless  their 
ministers,  as  well  as  their  converts,  go  "under  the  water. 
Is  not  that  so  ?" 

B.  If.  "  So  I  should  judge,  certainly."    * 

L  "And  rightly  would  you  so  judge.  For  so  it  is, 
if  their  words  mean  as  they  say,  and  their  reasoning  be 
reasonable.  By  their  works,  then,  let  them  show  the 
strong  faith  in  words  which  so  loudly  they  profess ;  and 
with  his  subject,  let  the  plunger  plunge  himself,  and 
prove  his  sincerity  in  the  meaning  of  inio  as  an  honest 
man  should." 

B.  If.  "  Is  it  not  likely,  though,  that  Philip  plunged 
the  eunuch  ?" 

/.  "  No,  it  is  not;  as  you  may  soon  see  for  yourself. 
But  it  would  be  of  no  importance,  any  more  than  how 
just  before  he  had  baptized  Simon  Magus,  but  for  this 
miserable  modern  strife  about  words.  Before  the  out- 
break of  the  Anabaptists  in  the  sixteenth  century,  there 
had  been  made  no  difficulty  about  either  the  mode  or 
the  subject  of  baptism,  except  now  and  then  by  some 
crotchety  fanatic.  The  commanded  form  of  sound  and 
solemn  words,  in  the  application  of  water,  was  alone  pre- 
scribed; -while  of  the  mode  there  is  no  command,  no 
prescription  whatsoever ;  and  as  there  is  no  word  of  God 
for  it,  there  should  be  none  of  man.  But  there  is  quite 
another  and  clearer  view  to  be  taken  of  this  matter :  we 
will,  therefore,  leave  in  the  desert  this  quicksand  plat- 


30  THE  THIED  TALK. 

form  of  a  system  or  theory,  which  spurns  all  others  as 
unchristian,  and  even  *  absurd,'  and  says  to  all  but  the 
plunged,  '  come  not  near  to  us,  for  we  are  holier  than 
you.'  To  learn  how  undesirable  is  such  a  spirit  of  ex- 
clusion, read  the  sixty-fifth  chapter  of  Isaiah.  Did  it 
never  strike  you  as  remarkable,  that  the  eunuch  proposed 
to  be  baptized  by  PhiHp,  when,  as  appears  in  the  record, 
there  had  been  no  word  between  them  on  the  subject?" 

B.  M.  "I  can't  say  that  it  ever  did ;  and  yet  now  it 
seems  strange  that  it  did  not.  Well,  how  came  the 
eunuch  to  know  any  thing  about  Christian  baptism,  if 
Philip  had  not  taught  him  ?" 

/.  ''He  had  been  up  to  Jerusalem,  you  know;  and, 
besides,  Philip  had  taught  him  about  baptism  before  he 
proposed  to  be  baptized." 

B.  M.  '^  The  account  in  Acts  does  not  say  so ;  and 
only  that  '  Phihp  opened  his  mouth,  and  began  at  the 
same  Scripture,  and  preached  unto  him  Jesus.' " 

/.  "Yery  true;  but  in  'preaching  unto  him  Jesus,' 
from  that  same  Scripture  which  the  eunuch  was  reading, 
he  must  have  preached  of  the  Christian  baptism,  which 
that  same  Scripture  preaches  prophetically." 

B.  M.  '"'■  Does  the  prophet  Isaiah  speak  of  baptism  ?" 

/.  "  Certainly ;  and  in  that  same  Scripture :  the  sec- 
tion which  the  Ethiopian  was  reading  in  his  chariot. 
Take  this  Bible,  and  find  it.  You  see  it  is  divided  into 
sections,  or  parts,  according  to  subjects.  So  were  the 
holy  writings  divided  in  the  time  of  Philip,  and  more 
than  twelve  hundred  years  after.  Then,  by  a  Eoman 
Cardinal,  they  were  divided  into  chapters,  and  yqtj 
often  to  the  injury  of  the  sense.  The  section  which  the 
eunuch  was  reading  begins  in  the  latter  part  of  the  fifty- 
second  chapter  of  Isaiah,  at  the  thirteenth  verse,  as  now 


PHILIP   AND   THE   EUNUCH.  81 

iivided,  in  our  common  Bible,  and  ends  with,  the  fifty- 
third  chapter.  It  may  have  been  specially  transcribed 
for  him,  on  his  tablets,  by  some  Christian  of  Jerusalem ; 
in  the  hope,  and  with  a  prayer,  that  it  might  call  his  at- 
tention to  the  Gospel :  for  I  suppose  you  know  that  the 
New  Testament  had  not  then  been  written.  He  may 
have  had  the  whole  of  Isaiah  or  more ;  or  all  of  the  Old 
Testament ;  but  it  was  this  same  Scripture — this  same 
section — which  he  had  read,  when  from  it  Philip  '  preach- 
ed unto  him  Jesus.'  Eead  it ;  and  see  if  you  find  any 
thing  from  which  Philip  would  be  likely  to  preach  to 
him  about  baptism." 

B.  M,  "Aye,  I  see  already  the  text  about  baptism,  I 
suppose :  '  So  shall  he  sprinkle  many  nations.'  " 

I.  "Yes,  that's -it.  Eead  the  whole  section,  and  you 
may  plainly  perceive  it  to  be  a  definite  and  splendid 
prophecy  of  the  coming  and  office  of  Christ,  and  that  it 
necessarily  begins  as  I  have  said." 

B.  M.  "  From  such  a  text,  Philip  would  hardly  preach, 
immersion  to  the  eunuch,  if,  for  any  reason,  he  practised 
it  upon  him.  Yet  that  hoik  going  down  into  the  luater^  and 
coming  up  out  of  the  loater^  still  bothers  me." 

/.  "No  doubt  it  'bothers'  you,  as  so  long  you  have 
been  accustomed  to  receive  it  as  a  proof  of  immersion, 
and  nothing  else ;  and  I  must  relieve  you  of  the  hother 
by  a  piece  of  criticism,  which  gladly  would  I  spare  you. 
But  before  entering  upon  it,  I  must  warn  3^ou  not  to  al- 
low it  in  the  least  to  shake  your  faith  in  our  excellent 
and  blessed  English  Bible,  which  is  never  in  fault  on 
any  of  the  great  doctrines  of  Christ  crucified  on  which 
our  hope  of  eternal  salvation  is  founded.  This  remem- 
ber, and  be  firmly  assured  of,  and  then  it  may  do  you 
no  harm  to  be  informed  that  the  original  of  this  passage 


32  THE   THIRD   TALK. 

might  have  been  differently  translated,  and  quite  as  lit- 
erally and  truly,  and  leaving  on  dry  ground  both  Philip 
and  the  eunuch.  The  Greek  words,  translated  into  and 
out  of.  are  often  found  in  the  New  Testament  translated 
quite  otherwise.  The  little  word  here  rendered  into^  is 
found  in  the  Greek  New  Testament  more  than  sixteen 
hundred  times,  with  various  classes  of  meanings ;  and  in. 
our  English  New  Testament  it  is  translated  in  fifteen 
different  ways,  always  intended,  of  coarse,  to  be  ren- 
dered to  suit  the  sense.  In  this  case  there  is  good  au- 
thority— the  best  that  can  be — for  saying  it  is  wrongly 
rendered.  The  pious  and  excellent  critic,  Parkhurst,  in 
his  Greek  Dictionary  of  the  New  Testament,  has  given 
various  examples  as  rightly  rendered ;  but  this  of  Philip 
and  the  eunuch,  going  down  into  the  water,  is  not  among 
them.  The  omission  is  significant.  He  did  not  think 
the  translation  correct.  Now,  if  authorities  may  be 
weighed,  this  silence  of  Parkhurst  may  well  balance  the 
loud  assertions,  with  all  their  echoes,  of  the  dogmatic 
asserters,  that  the  eunuch  was  immersed,  because  both 
went  down  into  the  water.  '  They  did  not  go  into  the 
water,'  saj^s  the  expressive  silence  of  Parkhurst,  who 
gives  at^  with  approbation,  as  the  true  translation  of  this 
same  Greek  word  in  this  very  account  of  Philip's  do- 
ings in  the  desert:  ' Philip  was  found  at  Azotus.'  It  is  the 
same  word.  '  They  did  not  go  into  the  water,  nor  come 
up  out  ofi\\Q  water,'  says  the  old  reliable  Syriac  version, 
in  the  employment  of  other  words  literally  translated  by 
the  venerable  Dr.  Murdoch :  '  They  both  went  down  to 
the  water,'  and  '  came  up  from  the  water.'  Such  is  the 
undoubtedly  true  translation.  What  think  you  of  it?' 
B.  M.  "I  think  it  is  a  great  pity  it  has  not  been  so 
translated  in  our  New  Testament." 


PHILIP  AND  THE   EUNUCH.  33 

L  "So,  doubtless,  it  should  have  been,  and  certainly 
it  would  have  been,  had  the  great  and  good  men  who 
gave  us  our  English  Bible  been  gifted  with  the  prophetic 
vision  of  a  large  and  respectable  sect  working  it  into  a 
platform,  from  which  to  hurl  denunciations  and  pro- 
scriptions against  all  the  rest  of  Christendom,  to  the 
misery  of  the  ignorant  and  to  the  danger  of  making 
shipwreck  of  the  faith  of  the  feeble.  !N"o  such  vision  of 
horror  could  have  entered  their  pure  minds." 

B.  M.  "  It  is  dreadful  to  think  of  the  misery  and  mis- 
chief that  their  fiery  and  bigoted  zeal  has  caused,  even 
in  our  little  town !" 

I.  "  But  you  must  never  lose  sight  of  the  almost  per- 
fect certainty,  that  a  very  large  portion  of  that  fiery  and 
bigoted  zeal  may  be  also  honest  and  sincere.  One  may 
not  always  be  able  to  speak  kindly  of  this  excluding 
system ;  but  when  I  speak  otherwise  of  their  bitter  sec- 
tarianism, you  must  not  understand  me  £is  without  char- 
ity for  the  persons  of  the  sect.  Do  not  confound  them. 
Hereditary  and  educational  prejudices  are  often  found 
in  minds  unable  to  resist  them.  Excellently  good  peo- 
ple are  many  of  them,  in  all  the  essentials  of  the  Chris- 
tian character.  JSTot  fewer,  in  proportion  to  their  num- 
bers, may  be  sincere  Christians,  as  they  honestly  hold 
Christianity,  than  are  found  in  other  great  bodies  of  be- 
lievers. "Greatly  to  their  credit,  many  of  them  are  good 
and  charitable,  in  spite  of  their  bad  and  bigoted  system, 
in  the  origin  of  which  they  had  no  part.  "We  must 
therefore  love  them,  and  pray  for  them,  and  do  good  to 
them,  while  contending  earnestly  against  their  unchar- 
itable, exclusive,  and  excluding  system.  Take  this  with 
you,  and  come  again  for  another  talk  when  convenient." 


THE  FOURTH  TALK 


CHIEFLY  ABOUT  WOEDS. 

*'  The  age  of  words  is  passing  awaj,  as  well  as  the  impostures  and  de- 
lusions to  which  they  gave  a  species  of  sanction." — The  Century. 

"Words  are  the  fool's  counters,  but  the  wise  man's  money." — Trench. 

L  "  AxD  wliat  says  your  busy  friend  of  tlie  matter  of 
Philip  and  the  eunuch  ?" 

B.  M.  "  Well,  I  told  him  all  I  could  recollect  of  your 
lesson,  and  it  seemed  to  disturb  him.  He  made  a  poor, 
and  rather  angry  defence  of  his  opinions,  and^then  said : 
'  Well,  after  all  it  is  of  no  consequence  to  argue  about 
particular  cases  of  baptism,  as  the  word  itself  always 
means  immersion,  as  almost  every  body  says,  and  never 
any  thing  else.' " 

/.  "  His  angry  defence,  and  his  wholesale  appeals  to 
authority,  may  well  be  taken  as  masking  a  want  of  per- 
fect satisfaction  with  his  opinions.  Perhaps  he  is  pain- 
fully conscious  that  they  have  no  foundation  in  real, 
true  and  accurate  knowledge  of  the  subject,  and  are 
therefore  of  very  little  value." 

B.  M.  "  I  reckon  he  is  too  opinionated  to  think  so  of 
them." 

/.  "So  much  the  worse  for  him,  then.  Por,  well  and 
truly  is  it  said,  '  The  soundest  judgment  would  have  no 


CHIEFLY  ABOUT  WORDS.  35 

authoritj,  if  based  on  defective  and  insufficient  knowl- 
edge.' We  may  now  proceed  to  weigh  this  groundless 
opinion  of  the  exclusive  meaning  of  the  word  baptism." 

B.  M.  "  And  to  baptize,  their  books  all  say,  means, 
always,  to  immerse  or  plunge,  all  over  under  water,  and 
never  any  thing  less." 

I.  "  Yes,  I  am  aware  of  that  strange  unity  of  error, 
so  mortifying  to  find  even  in  the  writings  of  men  of  high 
character  and  extensive  learning — men  who  must  have 
known,  unless  inscrutably  deluded,  that  there  is  not  a 
place  in  the  Bible  where  it  can  be  shown,  with  certainty, 
that  the  word  baptism  means  entire  immersion  and 
nothing  else.  From  the  perversions  or  delusions  of 
such  men — in  other  things  great  and  admirable — I  have 
sometimes  had  my  confidence  in  all  human  judgment 
shaken  painfully.  And  then,  that  they  have  multitudes 
of  followers,  even  from  the  sensible  classes,  Bible  in  hand, 
is  strange,  amazingly !  That,  among  the  ignorant  who 
can  not  reason,  the  servile  who  dare  not,  and  the  bigots 
who  will  not,  such  multitudes  should  be  found,  may  not 
reasonably  be  wondered  at." 

B.  JI.  '*  Did  I  understand  you  to  say  that,  in  the  Bible, 
baptism  never  means  immersion?" 

/.  ''  That  is  not  exactly  as  you  should  have  under- 
stood me ;  but  that  there  is  no  place  in  the  Bible  where 
it  can  be  shown  to  mean  immersion  a,nd  nothing  else." 

B.  M.  "  What,  then,  is  the  true  meaning  of  the  word 
in  the  Bible?" 

I.  "A  natural  question  for  you  to  ask,  not  being  yet 
aware,  I  suppose,  that  it  belongs  to  a  very  large  class 
of  questions,  more  easily  asked  than  answered." 

B.  M.  (Smiling.)  "  The  Baptists  find  no  trouble  in  an- 
swering it." 


36  THE  FOURTH  TALK. 

I.  "  That's  true  enongli.  Nor  does  your  little  boy  in 
giving  more  true  answers  to  many  like  questions.  Ask 
him  what  a  shoe  is,  and,  as  far  as  he  knows,  he  will  an- 
swer you  truly;  but  he  will  be  sure  not  to  include  all 
the  seven  different  meanings  of  the  word  in  Webster's 
Dictionary." 

B.  M.  "I  should  think  not;  but  what  has  that  to  do 
with  the  word  baptism  ?" 

/.  "Wait  and  learn.  It  may  have  something  to  do 
in  helping  you  to  understand  how  worthless  is  this 
word-argument  of  the  Baptists.  Shoe  is*  a  word  of  sev- 
eral meanings,  so  is  baptism." 

B.  M.  "I  beg  your  pardon  for  interrupting  you.  I 
will  wait  and  learn." 

L  "  My  drift  you'll  soon  perceive.  Should  you  ask 
of  your  little  boy  the  meaning  of  the  word  sliorU  he 
might  give  you  a  true  and  short  answer,  in  a  short 
time ;  but  he  would  be  sure  to  fall  far  short  of  the  some 
twenty  meanings  in  the  dictionaries,  not  to  say  of  the 
dozens  more  as  the  word  is  heard  in  conversation,  and 
found  in  reading.  And,  certainly,  a  very  little  way 
would  he  get  through  the  meanings  of  the  word  '  Botl^'' 
of  which  Webster  gives  not  fewer  than  thirty-six  classes 
of  applications.  So,  too,  of  other  words  innumerable,  in- 
cluding this  word  baptism.  Besides  every  kind  and  de- 
gree of  wetting,  it  is  found  in  the  Greek,  where  it  origin- 
ally belongs,  to  mean  staining^  coloring^  etc.  A  Greek 
dramatic  author  employs  it  in  describing  a  comedian 
whose  face  was  '■stained  with  a  tawny  wash,'  as  a  dis- 
guise, instead  of  the  usual  mask.  In  like  spirit,  he 
would  say  our  negro  minstrels  were  baptized  in  black. 
The  great  Homer  has  a  lake  baptized  with  the  blood  of 
a  frog.     A  tumble  in  the  mud,  or  even  in  the  sand, 


CHIEFLY  ABOUT  WORDS.  37 

would  be  called  a  baptism.  So  in  the  old  Greek  trans- 
lation of  the  Old  Testament  is  the  term  used.  Still,  in 
the  East,  the  traveler  is  baptized  with  dust.  The  Eus- 
sian  baptizes  his  beard  in  his  black  broth;  and  the 
Chinese,  his  chop-sticks  in  his  snail  soup.  So  you  see, 
then,  as  a  general  rule,  a  word  standing  by  itself  has 
no  particular  and  definite  meaning,  but  takes  its  meaning 
and  value  from  its  position,  as  connected  with  others." 

B.  M.  "  O  yes ;  I  never  thought  about  it  before :  a 
man  goes  across  the  street  to  get  shoes  put  on  his  horse, 
and  comes  to  me  for  quite  another  kind  of  shoes  for  his 
wife." 

I.  "  Yery  well ;  you  are  coming  on.  So,  you  see,  the 
shoes  which  you  make  are  very  distinct  from  horse- 
shoes and  sleigh-shoes,  etc.,  and  still  the  same  word  is  used 
for  all ;  therefore,  standing  by  itself,  the  word  shoe  has 
no  definite  meaning.  So,  to  approach  towards  the  word 
baptism,  wash  has  fourteen  different  meanings  given  to 
it  in  Webster's  Dictionary.  For  the  purpose  of  making 
you  familiar  with  the  changeable  and  slippery  nature  of 
words — and  how  much  care  and  skill  the  handling  of 
them  well  requires — I  had  laid  out  considerable  work 
with  these  big  books,  but  want  of  time  makes  it  needful 
to  take  a  shorter  way  than  I  had  intended,  to  show  you 
the  utter  fallacy  of  the  Baptist  argument  from  their  pet 
words.  As,  however,  they  make  words  into  things,  we 
may  not  altogether  neglect  to  examine  what  sort  of 
things  they  really  are.  You  have  already  learned 
something  of  words  of  many  meanings,  and  that  they 
belong  to  a  very  large  class  of  words.  You  have  also 
learned  that  these  words  have  no  definite  meaning  of 
their  own,  and  depend  for  their  meaning  and  value  on 
their  connection.     Wow,  a  glance  for  another  word-mys- 


88  THE   FOURTH  TALK. 

terj,  at  sucli  as  are  used  to  express  opposite  meanings, 
and  another  at  such  as  have  opposite  meanings  to  ex- 
press the  same  thought." 

B.  21.  "  How  can  such  things  possibly  be  ?" 

/.  "  That  the  same  word  is  used  at  one  time  to  convey 
one  meaning,  and  at  another  to  express  an  opposite, 
seems  certainly  strange ;  yet  so  shall  we  find,  even  in 
the  Bible." 

B.M.  "Can  it  be  possible?" 

Z  "See  for  yourself.  Eead  the  first  four  verses  of 
the  fifth  chapter  of  Exodus ;  and  take  special  notice  how 
the  little  word  lei  is  used." 

B.  J/.  "Sure  enough!  'Let  my  people  go,'  means 
allow  them  to  go.  And  when  the  King  says,  '  Where- 
fore do  ye,  Moses  and  Aaron,  let  the  people  from  their 
work?'  by  let  he  means  hinder  /  And  allow  and  hinder 
mean  quite  opposite  things !     Wonderful !" 

/.  "  Other  examples  of  lei  used  in  the  sense  of  hinder^ 
you  may  find  in  Isaiah,  xliii.  13,  and  Rom.  i.  13.  So 
too,  Shakspeare,  defying  hindrance, — '  I'll  make  a  ghost 
of  him  that  lets  me.'  In  that  Richardson,  you  may  see 
that  its  original  meaning  was  to  hinder ^  keep  back,  or 
behmd,  the  exact  contrary  of  its  now  usual  signification. 
Peeyent  is  another  word  which,  in  the  whirl  of  ages, 
has  lost  its  original  character.  It  was  a  helper.  It  is 
now  a  hinderer.  Its  original  meaning  is  to  precede^  or  go 
hefore,  to  direct^  or  lead^  or  help.  Now  it  is  used  in  an 
opposite  sense ;  to  stand  in  the  ivay^  to  hinder^  to  stop^  etc. 
Again,  in  passing,  first  and  last  are  used  in  the  same 
sense,  in  the  expressions  of  first  importance  and  of  last 
importance  ;  both  meaning  of  the  greatest  importance.'''' 

B.  If.  "  How,  then,  may  we  be  sure  of  the  meaning  of 
such  word  as  let,  or  prevent,  in  any  particular  case  ?" 


CHIEFLY  ABOUT  WOEDS.  39 

I.  "  Bj  its  relation  with  others,  as  already  said. 
Strange  work  is  sometimes  made  of  Scripture  for 
want  of  attention  to  this.  Prevent^  used  in  its  now 
usual  sense,  to  hinder,  and  what  would  it  make  St.  Paul 
say,  in  1.  Thess.  \x.  15  ?     See." 

B.  M.  "  To  be  sure !  It  would  make  him  say  that 
the  people  living  on  the  earth,  at  the  coming  of  the  Lord, 
shall  not  hinder  the  resurrection  of  the  dead !" 

I.  "  That  would  be  a  strange  perversion  of  his  mean- 
ing; that  such  Christians  as  should  be  alive  on  the 
earth,  at  the  day  of  judgment,  should  not  go  before,  but 
together  with  the  resurrected  dead.  The  Psalmist  says, 
'I  prevent  the  dawning  of  the  morning.'  He  might 
rise  before  the  dawn,  but  could  not  hinder  the  dawning ! 
So  in  many  places,  this  word  and  others  are  used  in  old 
and  peculiar  senses,  and  if  not  rightly  understood  the 
Scripture  becomes  unintelligible.  Nor  is  this  peculiar 
to  the  Bible." 

B.  M.  "  This  reminds  me  that  once  I  heard  St.  Paul 
preached  about  as  if  a  lawyer,  in  the  same  sense  as  we 
now  use  the  word.  The  preacher  said,  with  other  strange 
things,  that  no  doubt,  before  his  conversion,  he  had  been 
as  zealous  in  the  cause  of  his  clients  as  afterwards  he 
was  for  the  cause  of  Christ." 

/.  "ISTot  a  small  mistake;  and  yet  not  greater  than  is 
often  made  by  more  learned  men,  who  sometimes  give 
wrong  meaning  to  right  words.  Take  now  that  Cruden's 
Concordance,  and  turn  to  the  word  drinh.  It  may  help 
us  to  a  further  knowledge  of  the  Bible  use  of  words. 
What  have  you  found  V 

B.  M.  "  Whole  long  columns  of  the  word  drink." 

/.  "  Near  the  beginning  is  the  phrase,  '  to  drink 
blood.'     Bead  what  it  means." 


40  THE   FOURTH  TALK. 

B.  M.  "To  be  satiated  with  slaughter.  'Ye  shall 
drink  the  blood  of  princes.' " 

I.  "  Yes,  here  it  is  in  that  sublime  poetic  prophecy  of 
Ezekiel.  '  Assemble  yourselves  and  come.'  *  Ye  shall 
eat  the  flesh  of  the  mighty,  and  drink  the  blood  of  the 
princes  of  the  earth!'  Kow  run  your  eye  along  to 
Job,  xxi.  20,  and  read;  and  the  following  two  refer- 
ences from  Psalms." 

B.  M.  "  '  He  shall  drink  the  wrath  of  the  Almighty.' 
'Make  them  to  drink  of  the  rivers  of  thy  pleasures.' 
'  Made  us  to  drink  of  the  wine  of  astonishment.'  " 

I.  '"  Thou  hast  showed  thy  people  hard  things :' 
'  Thou  hast  made  us  to  drink  of  the  wine  of  astonish- 
ment.' And  so  may  you  find  a  hundred  other  different 
uses  of  the  word,  as  '  drinking  the  wine  of  violence ;'  of 
consolation,  of  iniquity;  the  water  of  gall;  and  drink 
up  scorning ;  and  poison  drinks  up  the  spirit ;  and  the 
earth  drinketh  in  the  rain.  Now,  here  you  have  seen  the 
numerous  examples  of  the  varied,  almost  contrasted, 
Bible  use  of  a  familiar  general  word.  Travel  is 
another  such  word.  In  its  varied  uses  it  may  well 
illustrate  the  proper  use  of  the  word  baptize.  How 
many  are  the  ways  to  travel !  On  foot ;  on  any  kind 
of  beast;  on,  in  or  with  any  kind  of  vehicle,  from  a 
hand-cart  to  a  steam-car;  borne  by  men  in  a  palan- 
quin ;  rowed,  or  steamed,  or  sailed,  in  any  kind  of  water- 
craft  ;  or  by  a  balloon  through  the  air.  And  these  are 
only  a  part  of  the  illustrations  of  the  meaning  of  the 
word.  Its  Bible  use  is  still  more  comprehensive,  includ- 
ing travail^  originally  the  same  word,  and  coming  from 
the  same  mint  with  trouble.  Look  into  Richardson,  and 
you  may  find  the  word  spelled  both  ways,  promiscu- 
ously.    Old  Chaucer  quotes  Solomon,  saying,  'he  that 


CHIEFLY  ABOUT  WORDS.  41 

travaihtli^  etc. ;  and  tlie  '  Knight  of  the  burning  pestle' 
would  have  'a  woman  that  will  sing  a  catch  in  her 
traveV — now  travail.  So  of  the  words  baptism  and 
baptize ;  the  meanings  are  numerous,  and  as  various  as 
the  word  travail — travel,  and  more  than  on-ce  used  in  a 
like  sense.     (See  Mark,  x.  39.    Isa.  liii.  11.) 

B.  M.  "It  is  not,  then,  by  any  means,  so  easy  as  I  sup- 
posed, and  as  the  Baptists  think  it,  to  answer  the  ques- 
tion. What  is  the  true  meaning  of  baptism?" 

/.  "  ISTo,  indeed.  And  as  to  the  mode  of  administering 
the  sacrament  of  baptism,  whatever  it  may  have  been 
when  Christians  lived,  worshiped  and  were  buried  in 
the  Catacombs,  it  is  various  now;  and  doubtless  all  are 
valid  and  true,  when  the  heart  is  in  the  right  place,  and 
the  Gospel  requirements  are  reverently  and  truly  ob- 
served. Some  religious  bodies  both  immerse  and  pour, 
or  sprinkle.  Some  pour  onlj^,  I  believe.  Some  perhaps 
only  sprinkle,  and  some  may  have  modes  different  from 
these.  The  Baptist,  only,  restricts  the  mode  to  immer- 
sion, and  condemns  all  others  as  unscriptural,  invalid 
and  false.  As  no  mode  is  prescribed  in  Scripture,  and 
only  the  form  of  words  commanded;  one  mode  must  be, 
in  itself,  just  as  good  and  proper  as  another,  if  as  capable 
of  being  performed  reverently,  and  decently,  and  in 
order." 

B.  M.  "  Some  think  immersions  are  not  always  decent." 

I.  "Be  that  as  it  may,  it  is  not  in  our  way  at  present. 
Water  is  employed  as  a  symbol  only ;  and,  as  such,  a 
drop  may  be  as  good  as  an  ocean :  better,  perhaps ; 
better,  certainly,  if  the  quantity  be  depended  on  for 
sanctification,  and  so  deified  and  made  into  an  idol  for 
adoration :  a  danger,  perhaps,  not  quite  impossible. 
Idolatries  have  grown  large  from  smaller  beginnings. 


i2  THE   FOURTH  TALK. 

This  m  passing.  It  sliould  not  pass  out  of  hearts  and 
minds  with  any  tendencies  toward  trusting  in  words  or 
modes.  It  is  the  work  of  the  SPIEIT  to  give  life ;  not 
the  quantity  of  water,  nor  the  manner  of  its  application. 
'  It  is  not  the  putting  away  the  filth  of  the  flesh ;'  if  it 
were,  mu"ch  water  might  often  be  desirable;  'but  the 
answer  of  a  good  conscience  towards  God ;'  by  which. 
'  baptism,'  St.  Peter  says,  '  doth  even  now  save  us,'  not 
by  itself  as  a  rite,  but  by  uniting  us  to  Christ,  in  the 
way  He  prescribed." 


THE  FIFTH  TALK 


THE  WOKD-AKGUMENT, 

/.  "Good-Morning.  Sit  down  and  tell  me  what 
says  your  good  neighbor  about  the  Apostle's  decision, 
that  baptism  is  not  for  clean  sing  the  body  with  a  large 
quantity  of  water,  but  to  answer  the  demands  of  a  good 
conscience — clean,  of  course — and  therefore  needing 
little." 

B.  M.  "He  says,  that  as  baptism  means  immersion 
and  nothing  else,  a  good  conscience  requires  immersion, 
without  which  it  can  make  no  good  answer." 

/.  "  Yery  well  said.  "Worthy  a  better  cause.  So  he 
sticks  to  the  word-argument;  worthless  as  it  is?" 

B.  M.  "  Yes ;  and  he  thinks  you  very  presumptuous 
in  pretending  to  know  more  than  all  his  long  list  of 
learned  authorities." 

I.  "He  might  well  think  me  presumptuous,  if  I  made 
any  pretension  to  be  the  equal  of  the  least  learned  of 
them.  But  on  this  particular  subject,  to  which,  for 
more  than  forty  years,  I  have  given  occasional  attention 
and  much  laborious  research,  I  have  arrived  at  the  cer- 
tain knowledge,  that  their  knowledge  of  it,  who  presume 
to  say  that  the  word  baptism  means  immersion  and 
nothing  else,  is  utterly  worthless,  if  not  the  most  arro- 
gant and  stupid  ignorance.      Let  them  go.     Let  the 


44  THE   FIFTH   TALK. 

fanatical  sincerity  of  tlie  sincere  among  tliem  be  their 
portion  and  pride.  Let  the  lovers  and  students  of  igno- 
rance and  bigotry  have  their  own  bad  way.  It  is  need- 
less to  attempt  their  enlightenment.  But  needless  it 
may  not  be  to  labor  for  the  relief  and  comfort  of  their 
unhappy  and  harmless  victims,  whose  faith  and  peace 
they  boast  of  having  unsettled  and  disturbed.  Let  them 
alone ;  and  turn  we  to  our  task  of  deepening  our  impres- 
sion of  their  miserable  error.  Yet  I  come  back  to  this, 
further  showing  that  baptism  is  not  necessarily  immer- 
sion and  nothing  else,  with  a  disrelish  akin  to  what  a 
naturalist  might  be  supposed  to  experience  in  approach- 
ing the  task,  ridiculous  as  irksome,  of  proving  scientific- 
ally, that  a  quadruped  is  not  necessarily  a  horse." 

B.  M.  "  Do  you  think  it  equally  plain  ?" 

/.  "  I  do,  indeed.  And  if  you  have  ears  to  hear  with, 
and  eyes  to  see  with,  and  an  understanding  to  distin- 
guish sense  from  nonsense,  and  the  plain  word  of  Grod 
from  fables,  you  can  not  fiil  of  the  same  conclusion ;  nor 
of  the  wonder  that  as  a  Bible  student  you  could  ever 
have  thought  otherwise.  For,  in  your  own  English 
Bible,  witnesses  are  found,  more  than  two  or  three,  and 
so  more  than  enough  to  establish  a  fact,  that  baptism 
does  not  always  mean  immersion  and  nothing  else  ;  and 
to  the  same  effect,  clouds  of  witnesses  abound  in  the 
original,  through  the  vail  of  which  you  may  see  clearly 
enough  to  discern  them  with  very  little  aid." 

B.  M.  "I  can't  think  how  I  am  to  see  any  thing 
through  that  vail." 

/.  "  If  necessary,  we  may  manage  to  make  a  small  hole 
in  it.  But  first  let  us  hear  our  own  English  witnesses 
testify,  that  to  baptize  is  not  necessarily  to  submerge. 


THE  WOKD-ARGUMENT.  45 

St.  Paul  tells  us  of  tlie  baptism  at  once  of  the  entire 
nation  of  Israel.     Where  were  they  baptized  ?" 

B.  M.  "  '  In  the  cloud  and  in  the  sea.'  " 

L  "Look,  then,  with  your  mind's  eye,  and  you  may 
see  them  marching  on  the  bed  of  the  Bed  Sea,  its 
waters  blown  away  by  'the  breath  of  the  Lord,'  and 
*  the  cloud'  overshadowing  and  distilling  its  dews  of 
heaven  upon  them,  as  they  are  marching  'on  the  dry 
ground,'  '  baptized  in  the  cloud  and  in  the  sea.'  So  St. 
Paul  declares  them  to  have  been ;  and  that  he  would  not 
have  us  ignorant  HOW." 

B.  M.  "Do  you  think  he  means  he  would  not  have 
us  ignorant  of  the  mode  .^" 

/.  "Of  the  mode,  perhaps,  as  well  as  the  fact.  Be 
that  as  it  may,  it  is  by  God's  word  testified  to  have  been 
a  hajytism.  And  now,  in  that  sublime  scene,  can  you 
discern  any  thing  like  a  Baptist  plunging?" 

B.  M.  "  Certainly,  I  can  not." 

I.  "Then,  Grod's  word  declares  by  an  Apostle,  that 
baptism  does  not  always  mean  immersion  and  nothing 
else." 

B.M.  "So,  indeed,  it  does!" 

/.  "Look  now  on  what  our  Lord  himself  calls  a  bap- 
tism— the  descent  of  the  Holy  Ghost  upon  the  Apostles 
and  people  on  the  day  of  Pentecost,  when  the  Holy 
Spirit  was  'poured  out'  upon  them,  as  the  Prophet 
Joel  had  foretold,  and  the  Apostle  Peter  declared  to 
be  a  fulfilment  of  the  prophecy.  In  that  sacred  and 
sublime  scene,  is  there  any  likeness  found  of  a  Baptist 
immersion  ?" 

^.i/:"  Surely  not." 

L  "  Then,  not  prophets  and  apostles,  only,  but  Christ 


46  THE   FIFTH   TALK. 

Himself  testifies  that  baptism  does  not  always  mean  •  im- 
mersion and  nothing  else.' " 

B.  M.  '*  Indeed,  that  is  certainly  so !" 

I.  "  Other  cases  are  found  in  numbers,  in  which  im- 
mersion is  quite  out  of  question.  But  these  may  suf- 
fice ;  for  higher  ground  of  proof  is  impossible  to  be  found. 
Yet  we  may  ask  in  passing,  if  baptism  means  '  immer- 
sion, and  nothing  else,'  where  we  read  of  the  baptism 
with  fire ;  and  the  '  baptism  of  suffering,'  wherewith  our 
Blessed  Lord  was  baptized  in  the  garden  and  on  the 
cross?  ]S"ow  take  this  'Englishman's  Greek  Concord- 
ance ;'  turn  to  the  ninety-sixth  page,  and  learn  a  little 
Greek  for  the  occasion.  Do  you  see  that  Greek  word 
in  our  common  letter,  as  well  as  in  Greek  ?" 

B.M.  ''I  do." 

Z  "What  is  it?" 

B.M.  "Baptizo." 

I.  "  Yery  well.  That's  Greek  enough  for  the  present. 
Now  look  at  the  second  quotation,  and  read  it." 

B.  M.  '•  I  indeed  haptize  you  with  water." 

I.  "Well  again.  Now  you  know  the  English  of 
haptizo  is  baptize.  Eun  your  eye  down  to  Mark,  vii.  4, 
and  read." 

B.  If.  "  Except  they  ivash,  they  eat  not." 

I.  "And  why  think  you  was  that  ranged  under 
baptizo  ?" 

B.  21.  "  I  can  not  tell,  I'm  sure." 

/.  "It  is  because  the  word  wash  is  haptizo  in  the 
original.  'Except  they  baptize^  they  eat  not.'  So  on 
the  next  column  you  find  hap^tismos — baptisms,  three 
times  out  of  four  translated  washing.  Bead  now  the 
seventh  of  Mark,  and  you  will  learn  something  of  the 
*  divers  haptisnis'  of  the  Jews,  for  which  our  Lord  re- 


THE   WOKD-ARGUMENT.  47 

buked  them,  bat  which  could  not  have  been  immersion 
and  nothing  else.  St.  Luke  says,  they  baptized  their 
hands  before  dinner.  That  was  a  ceremonial  washing 
which  was  always  performed  by  water  poured  on  the 
hands  by  another.  And  'the  baptisms  of  cups,  and  of 
brazen  vessels,  and  of  couches^''  as  reads  the  Syriac  New 
Testament — tables,  in  our  version — ^both  I  suppose ;  for 
the  Jews  reclined  on  couches^  to  eat  from  their  tables; 
and  in  their  hypocritical  superstitions,  no  doubt,  they 
baptized  all  their  dining-room  furniture :  but  not  by 
immersion,  I  trow ;  but  after  the  mode  of  the  ancient 
purifications,  which  was  by  sprinkling.  Do  you  remem- 
ber about  the  six  water-pots,  or  stone  jars,  which  were 
used  in  the  first  miracle  of  our  Lord,  and  what  their 
ordinary  use  was  ?" 

B.  M.  "Yes,  I  remember  them;  and  that  St.  John 
says  they  were  set  there  after  the  manner  of  the  purify- 
ing of  the  Jews.  So  I  suppose  they  were  to  hold  water 
for  purifying,  or  washing." 

/.  "Of  course,  they  were.  They  were  to  hold  water 
for  all  these  baptisms  of  the  household  of  Jews  th-em- 
selves,  and  of  the  cups,  and  pots,  and  brazen  vessels,  and 
couches,  and  tables,  and  many  other  things — every  thing 
about  them.  But,  if  they  baptized  no  more  than  the 
evangelists  enumerate,  they  could  not  well  have  plunged 
them  into  the  six  water-pots  of  stone,  holding  but  two 
or  three  firkins  apiece." 

B.M.  "I  should  think  not." 

I.  "  And  think  right,  too.  JSTo,  the  water  in  those 
pots  was  used  on  their  hands  by  pouring,  and  on  the  fur- 
niture by  sprinlding.  The  mode  in  both  cases  is  full^ 
taught  in  the  ancient  holy  Scriptures  of  the  Jews.  But 
those  Scriptures  nowhere  taught  them  these  superstitious 


48  THE   FIFTH   TALK. 

practices ;  for  wliich  their  Messiah  rebuked  them :  '  Well 
hath  Esaias  prophesied  of  you  hypocrites,  as  it  is  writ- 
ten, This  people  honoreth  me  with  their  lips,  bat  their 
heart  is  far  from  me.  Howbeit  in  vain  do  they  worship 
me,  teaching  for  doctrines  the  commandments  of  men. 
For  laying  aside  the  commandment  of  God,  ye  hold  the 
tradition  of  men,  as  the  washing  (l)aptizing)  of  pots  and 
cups :  and  many  other  such  like  things  ye  do.'  " 

B.  M.  "Is  it  of  these  things  that  St.  Paul  speaks  in 
Heb.  ix.  10,  of  divers  luashings  V 

I.  "'Which  stood  (consisted)  only  in  meats,  and 
drinks,  and  divers  hai^tisms.''  No,  the  Apostle  here 
speaks  of  the  ceremonial  rites,  'carnal  ordinances'  of 
the  ancient  ritual,  to  be  done  away  by  the  great  High- 
Priest  of  the  New  Covenant.  They  consisted  only  in 
prescribed  •  regulations  about  meats  and  drinks  which 
w^ere  to  be  abstained  from  by  the  worshipers  of  the  Tab- 
ernacle, and  of  various  ceremonial  washings,  or  bap- 
tisms, to  be  observed  by  the  officiating  Priests  and  Le- 
vites,  and  by  ceremonially  defiled  people,  before  they  were 
admitted  into  the  tabernacle,  or  temple;  and  in  other 
'carnal  ordinances,'  which  only  sanctified  to  the  purify- 
ing, or,  as  St.  Peter  says,  '  of  putting  away  of  the  filth 
of  the  flesh ;'  and  were  therefore  imposed  on  them,  only, 
un'til  the  reformation  at  the  coming  of  Christ,  '  an  High- 
Priest  of  good  things  to  come.'  Now,  if  you  would 
know  exactly  what  all  this  means,  and  that  these  hap- 
tisms,  here  translated  washings,  were  not  immersions, 
turn  to  Lev.  x.  9,  Exod.  xxix.  4,  Numb.  viii.  7,  and 
Lev.  XV.  8,  and  you  will  see  that  the  baptisms  of  the 
persons  were  performed  by  sprinkling.  '  Sprinkle  water 
of  purifying  upon  them.'  Baptism  then  does  not  always 
mean  immersion  and  nothing  else." 


THE   WORD-AEGUMENT.  49 

B.  M.  "  ^"0,  indeed ;  that's  plain  enough.  But  how 
about  that  famous  word  Bapto,  which  is  in  every  Bap- 
tist mouth,  from  the  preacher  to  the  pauper,  as  always 
meaning  to  dip^  and  nothing  else." 

I.  "  We  shall  see.  They  are  not  quite  so  far  wrong 
in  that  assumption.  Let  it  mean  dijp^  if  they  will  have 
it  so ;  but  what  dip  means,  where  Bapto  is  so  translated 
into  our  English,  which  is  the  very  kernel  of  the  matter, 
we  shall  see;  and  that  it  means  nothing  like  their  im- 
mersion as  shown  in  their  mode  of  baptism.  When  you 
can  bring  a  spare  hour  with  you,  come  again,  and  I'll 
try  to  make  you  know,  as  much,  at  least,  of  their  famous 
Bapto  as  the  most  learned  Grecian  of  them  all." 

So,  after  this  fifth,  talk,  my  good  Bootmaker  retires 
brighter  and  happier   far  than  when  he  so  excitedly 
introduced  the  first. 
3 


THE    SIXTH    TALK 


BAPTO. 

"  Actions  speak  louder  than  words." — Old  Promrl). 

I.  "  "Well,  I  am  glad  to  see  you  this  morning ;  for  I 
^1  quite  prepared  to  go  to  the  root  of  the  matter  with 
you,  in  this  search  into  the  Baptist  claim  of  an  exclusive 
right  to  condemn  all  modes  but  their  own." 

B.  M.  "  Of  Bapto,  we  were  to  talk  this  time.  Is  that 
what  you  call  the  root  of  the  matter  ?" 

I.  ''Yes;  Bapto  is  the  root  of  all  the  trees  which  the 
Baptists  claim  to  have  a  right  to  grow  in  this  wilderness 
of  confusion  and  strife,  which  so  successfully  they  have 
planted.  It  is  a  strong  root ;  it  has  need  to  be,  to  with- 
stand the  storms  of  centuries  against  its  lofty  tree,  with 
large  branches  and  numerous  branchlets,  full  of  leaves 
for  the  healing  of  the  nations ;  if  they  will  use  them  in 
order  to  be  healed,  and  not  wear  them  as  mere  decora- 
tions. The  tree  is  called  Baptizo,  in  its  native  land. 
Like  our  own  noble  elm,  it  has  two  grand  branches. 
Baptisma  and  Baptismos  are  the  names  by  which  they 
are  called  where  the  tree  is  indigenous,  or  native ;  and 
where  it  is  an  exotic,  as  in  our  country,  all  these  names 
are  so  framed  from  the  originals  as  to  show  their  origin. 


BAPTO.  51 

The  smaller  numerous  branches  have  also  names  of  the 
like  radical,  or  root,  character,  which  declare  them  to 
partake  naturally  of  the  qualities  of  the  root  hapto. 
With  it  now  we  have  to  do.  Often  has  it  been  roughly 
treated;  but  its  strong  and  solid  nature  has  saved  it 
from  vital  inj  ury.  At  our  hands  it  shall  take  no  damage ; 
and  what  we  may,  we'll  do  to  heal  its  wrongs.  In  all 
this,  about  the  root,  the  tree,  and  its  branches,  I  have 
tried  a  little  to  turn  your  ears  into  eyes.  I  shall 
try  more  by  and  by,  and  you  must  take  the  operation 
kindly,  and  do  what  you  can  to  insure  the  success  of 
the  experiment,  which  will  show  you,  that  even  the  root 
of  the  tree  stands  not  in  the  water,  any  where  in  the 
Holy  Land  of  the  ISTew  Testament." 

B.  M.  "I  will  do  what  I  can  to  understand  the 
matter." 

I.  "  We  will  then  proceed  to  expose  this  huge  error, 
which  has  grown  into  a  monster  so  frightful  as  painfully 
to  unsettle  the  faith  of  the  feeble,  and  to  disturb  the 
peace  even  of  the  strong.  This  so  very  loudly  cele- 
brated root- word  'Bapto'  is  found  but  three  times  in 
the  whole  of  the  ISTew  Testament.  You  may  therefore 
easily  find  all  its  localities." 

B.  M.  "  Where  shall  I  look  for  them  ?" 

/.  ''Open  that  same  English  Greek  Concordance  at 
the  ninety-seventh  page,  and  you'll  find  the  word  with 
the  references.     Where  is  the  first?" 

B.M,  "Luke,  xvi,  24." 

/.  "Find  and  read  the  verse  in  this  translation  from 
the  Syriac.  With  the  same  sense,  it  is  more  impressive 
than  in  our  common  version.  More  pathetically  wail- 
ful is  the  too  late  discovery  of  the  evil  of  sinful  selfish- 


52  THE  SIXTH  TALK. 

B.  M.  *'  'And  "be  called  with  a  loud  voice,  and  said: 
Abraham !  my  father,  have  pity  on  me,  and  send  Laza- 
rus, that  he  m^ay  dip  the  tip  of  his  finger  in  water,  and 
moisten  my  tongue;  for  lo,  I  am  tormented  in  this 
flame.' " 

I.  "Poor  rich  man!  More  awful  thy  lament  than 
even  the  despairing  wail  of  the  wretched  Esau  !  But 
our  task  demands  that  from  the  heart  we  take  the  sub- 
ject, and  restore  it  to  the  head.  The  word  dip^  which 
you  find  there,  is  the  English  of  the  Greek  word  Bapto. 
As  the  Greek  word  for  baptism  was  not  translated,  but 
merely  Englished  in  its  termination,  so  Bapto  might  have 
been  in  the  same  way  made  into  hapt  instead  of  dip. 
But  the  translators  could  not  foresee  that  dip^  a  then 
common  English  word  to  express  this  action  of  touching 
a  liquid  with  the  point  of  the  finger,  could  ever  be  mag- 
nified into  the  immersion  of  the  whole  body  under  water. 
Who  could  have  dreamed  of  such  a  strange  perversion 
of  language?  Yet  such  is  the  strange  fact!  How 
strange,  let  us  see !  That  we  may  really  see,  and  too 
plainly  to  be  mistaken,  '  lend  me  your  ears,'  that  I  may 
turn  them  into  eyes,  that  you  may  indeed  see  the  full 
meaning  of  hapto  and  dip  in  the  ITew  Testament ;  with 
which  only  we  have  to  do  in  this  matter.  '  May  dip  the 
tip  of  his  finger  in  water  I  Such  a  dip  don't  seem  or 
sound  much  like  a  deep  plunge  of  a  large  body  under 
water,  does  it  ?" 

B.  M.  "  I  should  think  not.  But,  then,  the  Baptists 
say  it  always  signifies  immersion,  and  so  they  often  use 
the  word  dip  when  speaking  of  baptism." 

/.  "  Well,  let  us  look  at  it.  Let  us  see  if  dipping  the 
tip  or  point  of  the  finger  in  water  looks  like  immersion. 
Eor  the  experiment  we  need  no  Greek.     The  word  is  in 


BAPTO.  53 

our  own  tcngue,  and  the  experiment  is  an  easy  one  for 
our  own  hands.  We  need  find  no  fault  with  the  trans- 
lation, as  the  Baptists  do,  and  would  make  it  ridiculous, 
by  making  it  immersion,  instead  of  dip.  Eightly  enough 
it  might  here  have  been  translated  touchy  to  express  pre- 
cisely the  same  action." 

B.  M.  "  So  perhaps  it  would." 

/.  "So,  perhaps?  There  is  no  possible  room  for  a 
perhaps.  Try  it.  Act  it.  Look  well  at  the  action. 
See  it  with  your  own  eyes  and  not  another's,  and  be 
never  again  half-fanaticised  by  a  confused  noise  in  your 
ears  of  dij)^  plunge,  immerse;  in  the  water,  and  under 
the  water,  and  never  so  many  more  words — mere  words 
— to  confound  the  ignoraiit,  and  to  excite  the  fearful  and 
the  foolish." 

B.  M.  "I  will  try  hereafter  to  keep  cool  and  un- 
excited." 

I.  "  Do  so  by  all  means.  And  now  for  the  experi- 
ment;  the  'crucial  experiment;'  the  ocular  demon- 
stration of  the  meaning  of  bapto,  in  the  ISTew  Testament ! 
See  it.  Nay,  feel  it  for  yourself.  You  are  to  touch  the 
tip  of  your  finger  to  the  water  in  this  cup.  Mind  !  you 
are  not  to  plunge  it  in  as  if  no  matter  how ;  or  how 
much  of  the  water  you  may  scatter  about  on  my  books 
and  papers !  0  no ;  you  must  very  carefully  touchy  or 
dip^  the  extreme  end  of  your  finger  in,  or  on,  rather, 
the  surface  of  the  water,  so  as  just  to  take  up  the  little 
drop  which  may  adhere  to  it.  Ko  more  was  asked  for 
by  the  poor,  unfortunate,  rich  man,  in  torment.  A  very 
modest  request  for  one  long  accustomed  to  sumptuous 
fare  every  day.  Be  very  careful,  now,  in  performing 
this  important  experiment.     Such  it  is.     So  now,  there, 


54  THE  SIXTH  TALK. 

that  is  well  and  neatly  done.  Do  you  see  that  little 
pendant  drop  ?" 

B.  M.  "Yes,  and  was  that  the  bapto — the  dijp  of  the 
tip  of  the  finger  of  Lazarus,  begged  for  so  earnestly  by 
the  rich  man,  who  had  suffered  the  pauper  to  lie  at  his 
gate  while  the  more  pitiful  dogs  licked  his  sores?" 

L  "Exactly.  That  was  it.  And  now,  what  sort  of 
a  notion  of  immersion — the  inevitable  Baptist  immer- 
sion— does  that  convey  to  your  mind  ?" 

B.  M.  "  None.     Certainl}^,  none  whatever." 

I.  "Yet  their  learned  revisers  of  the  Bible  would 
have  us  believe  that  bapto,  in  this  place,  should  have 
been  translated  immerse.  One  would  think  dip  might 
satisfy  them,  as  they  use  it  in  ihe  same  sense.  Well,  dijp 
is  the  word.  So  let  it  be.  Immerse,  certainly,  if  they 
choose.  But  what  sort  of  a  dip,  or  immersion  ?  You 
may  well  smile  at  the  notion  of  immersing  the  tip  of  the 
finger  to  procure  a  drop  of  water !  Can  you  ever  again 
be  made  a  '  Galatian'  of,  foolish  enough  to  be  bewitched 
into  the  silly  notion  that  bapto  always  means  immersion?" 

B.M.  "I  hope  not.  And  since  seeing  with  my  eyes,  and 
feeling  with  my  finger,  and  with  my  heart  too,  that  there 
is  really  no  truth  in  the  Baptist  notion ;  I  trust  I  am 
pretty  safe  from  any  bad  effects  of  their  future  attacks 
on  my  faith.  I  am  now  quite  sure  they  will  never  get 
me  into  the  river." 

/.  "  You  see  now,  that  to  come  at  a  complete  knowl- 
edge of  this  word,  as  here  used,  you  have  no  more  need 
of  Grreek  than  you  have  to  make  a  pair  of  boots,  which, 
when  you  have  made  them,  you  know  it.  Do  you  know 
now  that  the  word  dip  here  does  not  mean  immersion  ?" 

B.  M.  "  Certainly,  it  is  plain  as  day.  Mistake  is  im- 
possible.    I  can  never  be  surer  of  knowing  any  thing." 


BAPTO.  55 

I.  "  Eemember  that.  And  let  not  what  you  do  know, 
be  disturbed  by  what  you  do  not  know.  To  what  yoa 
really  know,  the  most  learned  can  add  nothing  to  make 
you  know  it  better.  But  'beware  of  men,'  who  may 
deceive  and  mislead  you.  It  will  not  help  you,  that 
themselves  had  been  first  deceived,  and  are  hugging 
their  chains  of  error  because  they  are  theirs^  and  have 
come  to  like  the  metal  they  are  made  of — the  better 
perhaps,  because  of  their  weight." 

SECOND    LOCALITY. 
*  Facts  are  the  arguments  of  God.' 

"  So  has  it  been  wisely  said.  And  from  the  established 
fact  of  the  meaning  of  Bapto,  already  past,  we  proceed 
to  the  next  place,  when  found — to  the  second  divine 
locality  of  bapto  made  English  in  dip,  but  not  immer- 
sion.    You  may  now  please  read  John,  xiii.  26." 

B.  M.  "  Shall  I  read  from  the  same  book  ?" 

/.  "Yes.  There  is  no  difference,  but  in  one  word. 
*  ;Sbp,'  in  our  Testament,  is  hread  in  the  Syriac.  They 
may  help  to  explain  each  other.  The  word  sojp  in  Old 
England,  and  in  our  ISTew  England,  means — or  did  sixty 
years  ago — a  piece  of  bread  dipped  in  gravy  or  other 
liquid.  It  is  a  so^  when  moistened  from  the  dish.  You 
may  now  read  the  answer  of  our  Lord,  to  the  question 
of  the  beloved  John." 

B.  M.  "  He  it  is,  to  whom  I  give  the  bread  when  I 
have  dipped  it."         ► 

I.  "Or  sopped  it,  as  was  formerly  the  way  of  speak- 
ing ;  and  the  piece  was  then  called  a  sop,  as  I  often  heard 
it  in  my  early  days.  Here,  then,  again  we  find  the  word 
explained  by  the  action  to  mean  what  falls  far  short  of 


56  THE  SIXTH  TALK. 

a  plunging  immersion.  The  circumstances  and  tlie  ac- 
tion make  distinctly  plain  the  meaning  of  the  word.  One 
of  the  circumstances  not  to  be  lost  sight  of  is,  that  the 
Jews  had  no  forks.  Forks  are  a  modern  invention. 
And  the  Jew,  whose  ceremonial  religion  trained  him  up 
in  abhorrence  of  all  outward  defilements,  when  he 
could  no  longer  sop  the  diminished  bread  in  his  fingers 
without  defiling  them,  wiped  his  lips  and  fingers  with 
the  remaining  morsel  and  threw  it  to  the  dogs.  Such 
were  'the  crumbs  that  fe]l  from  the  master's  table.* 
Fragments  they  are  called  in  the  Syriac  New  Testament. 
When  no  longer  tliey  could  be  sopped  without  sopping 
the  fingers,  they  were  given  to  the  dogs.  This  remain- 
ing fragment  of  bread  was  used  instead  of  a  napkin ;  an 
article  unused  for  table  purposes  by  the  Jews,  so  far  as 
we  know.  Kow  you  understand  about  the  sop — the 
piece  of  unleavened  bread,  the  end  dipped  in  the  dish  to 
moisten  it  for  the  mouth,  the  dry  end  in  the  fingers,  not 
dipped.  Now  we  will  look  into  the  dish  and  see  how 
much  this  dipping  is  like  a  Baptist  immersion." 

B.  M.  ''More  like,  I  suppose,  than  the  finger-dip  in 
the  water." 

/.  "  Not  much.  Not  enough  to  do  any  thing  for 
their  cause.  Not  an  immersion  or  any  thing  like  it. 
In  this,  as  in  that,  fingers  become  tongues  and  cry  out, 
*  No  immersion — no  immersion.'  Now  try  to  see  with 
your  ears  again,  and  with  the  open  eyes  of  your  under- 
standing, that  you  may  be  able  confidently  to  deny  that 
here  either  Bapto,  dip,  signifies  Baptist  immersion.  What 
was  in  the  '  brazen  dish,'  we  know  all  about.  It  was  a 
roasted  lamb.  'And  they  shall  eat  the  flesh  in  that 
night,  roast  with  fire,  and  unleavened  bread,  and  with  bit- 
ter herbs  shall  they  eat  it.'     Eat  not  of  it  raw — not  rare 


BAPTO.  57 

or  underdone — '  nor  sodden  at  all  with  water,  but  roast 
with  fire ; ' — no  water  must  come  near  it — '  it  is  the  Lord's 
passover !'  Exo.  xii.  8.  Of  all  others,  we  know  that 
this  'Law  of  righteousness,'  at  this  last  Passover,  was 
strictly  and  minutely  '  fulfilled.'  As  our  Lord  had  be- 
fore said  to  John  the  Baptist,  had  there  been  occasion. 
He  would  have  said  then  to  the  twelve, — '  Thus  it  be> 
Cometh  us  to  fulfill  all  righteousness.'  There  was,  then, 
no  superabundance  of  gravy  in  the  brazen  dish  to  begin 
with ;  not  to  say  there  could  be  very  little  left,  when,  at 
the  last  sop  to  the  traitor,  the  feast  was  virtually  con- 
cluded. *  The  supper  being  ended,'  St.  John  says. 
Small,  then,  must  have  been  the  quantity  of  fluid  in  the 
*  brazen  dish.'  For  a  plunge,  too  shallow.  Simply 
moist,  at  best,  but  a  minute  portion  of  it  could  have 
adhered  to  the  unleavened  bread." 

B.  M.  "  More,  I  suppose,  than  of  the  water  on  the  tip 
of  the  finger." 

/.  "  Try  the  experiment  and  see  how  much  more." 

B.M.  "How?" 

/.  "  Procure  a  lamb  of  the  size  of  a  Judean  lamb  in 
the  early  spring.  Dress  it  after  the  prescribed  manner 
of  the  Paschal  lamb — all  the  blood  drawn  from  it. 
Boast  it  thoroughly  before  the  fire  or  in  an  oven — not 
bathed  nor  basted,  but  thoroughly  roasted  to  the  bone. 
During  all  the  roasting  process,  it  must  be  exposed  to 
the  evaporating  influence  of  the  flames,  or  of  the  oven's 
scorching  heat.  Then,  so  cooked,  serve  up  in  the  even- 
ing to  a  dozen  men,  besides  yourself,  having  all  day 
abstained  from  food.  The  feast  *  ended;'  having  mois- 
tened both  your  dry  meat  and  your  very  dry  bread 
with  the  gravy  of  the  dish,  then  see  if  there  remain 
enough  to  plunge  (baptize)  any  thing  in.      Will  you 


58  THE  SIXTH  TALK. 

doit?" 

B.M,  "I'll  think  about  it." 

I.  "And  that  may  do  quite  as  well.  Think  soberly, 
wisely,  reverently  about  it,  as  you  ought  to  think. 
With  great  and  blessed  results,  God  is  wont  to  reward 
such  thinking." 

B.  M.  "  I  will  try  so  to  think." 

I.  "  Do ;  and  be  sure  of  effectual  help.  Often  let  your 
good  thoughts  run  in  this  channel  of  humiliation,  viz. : 
How  much  of  error,  and  of  consequent  unhappiness, 
would  have  been  saved,  had  people  always  so  employed 
their  thoughts — soberly  and  wisely ;  and  never  thought 
more  highly  of  themselves  than  they  ought  to  think. 
And  if  religious  people  only  would  now  all  so  think,  and 
act  accordingly,  how  soon  would  the  wilderness  of  sin  and 
error  blossom  as  a  garden  of  roses ;  and  peace,  as  a  river 
of  life  and  love,  flow  gently  through  it !" 

B.  M.  "What  a  blessing  it  would  be  !" 

Z  "  A  blessing  indeed !  the  very  slightest  thought  of 
which  is  almost  enough  to  madden  one  who  may  be 
conscious  of  having  done  little  or  nothing  to  secure  it, 
and  much  perhaps  for  an  opposite  result.  It  is  indeed 
humbling,  exceedingly  and  distressfully,  to  think  of  the 
evils  that  have  come  of  errors  of  all  sorts,  to  which  even 
the  well-intentioned  are  subject.  Such  thought  should 
not  be  allowed  to  depart  from  us  in  vain,  while  consid- 
ering the  errors  into  which  others  have  unhappily  fallen. 
Let  us  watch  and  pray,  lest  we  also  fall  into  temptation, 
and  a  snare." 


BAPTO.  59 


THIRD  LOCALITY  OF  BAPTO. 

""Who  is  this  that  cometh  from  Edom? 
"With  dyed  garments  from  Bozrah  ? 
This  that  is  glorious  in  his  apparel, 
Traveling  in  the  greatness  of  his  strength  ? 
I  that  speak  in  righteousness, 
Mighty  to  save. 

"Wherefore  art  thou  red  in  thine  apparel  ? 
And  thy  garments  like  him  that  treadeth  in  the  wine-fat? 
I  have  trodden  the  wine-press  alone ; 
And  of  the  people  there  was  none  with  me : 
For  I  will  tread  them  in  mine  anger, 
And  trample  them  in  my  fury ; 

And  their  blood  shall  be  sprinkled  upon  my  garments, 
And  I  will  stain  all  my  raiment." 

Isaiah,  Ixiii.  1,  2,  3. 

/.  "We  now  proceed  to  the  third  and  last  locality  of 
the  Bapto  root.  It  is  in  the  extreme  division  of  the 
Garden  of  Life,  where  fall  the  dark,  mysterious  shadows, 
which  it  is  sometimes  fearful  to  encounter.  Yet,  to  find  a 
safe  way  through  them,  there  is  always  light  enough  to 
guide  the  faithful,  who  humbly  seek  to  find  the  Truth. 
'  Seek  and  ye  shall  find.'  You  will  now  please  look  for  it." 

B,  M.  "In  the  same  book?" 

I.  "In  the  same  book.  It  is  a  truthful  translation,  by 
a  truthful  and  venerable  man,  from  the  language  in 
which  the  Gospel  was  first  preached  among  the  Syrians 
by  the  first  ministers  of  Christ ;  with  whom,  in  the  same 
language  (their  mother  tongue),  they  conversed ;  and 
from  whose  lips  they  may  have  received  both  instruc- 
tion and  authority." 

B.M.  "  '  And  He  was  clothed  with  a  vesture  sprinkled 
with  blood ;  and  His  name  is  called  the  Word  of  God :' 
Eev.  chap.  xix.  v.  13.    Sprinkled  ?" 


60  THE   SIXTH   TALK. 

/.  '*  And  does  that  surprise  you,  after  seeing  the  en- 
tire anti-immersion  character  of  the  same  original  word, 
Bapto,  as  already  examined  ?" 

B.  M.  "I  suppose  it  should  not  surprise  me;  but 
dipped  in  blood  is  so  much  more  familiar  to  me — " 

/.  "Yes,  certainly.  How  happy,  if  what  is  most  fa- 
miliar, could  be  also  most  true.  Well,  read  it  now  in  our 
common  version.  With  that  we  have  especially  to  do 
in  this  matter  of  exposing  error." 

B.  M.  "  '  He  was  clothed  in  a  vesture  dipped  in  blood ; 
and  His  name  is  called  the  Word  of  God.'  " 

I.  "All  the  same,  you  see,  excepting  the  single  word 
now  to  be  questioned  of  its  meaning.  I  think  as  here 
illustrated  by  the  sublime  vision,  it  will  claim  no  near  re- 
lationship with  immersion.  In  the  Messianic  visions  of 
both  the  Prophet  Isaiah  and  the  last  of  the  Apostles, 
the  main  idea  of  the  words  is  color — ^blood-color.  A 
prominent  meaning  of  the  Greek  word  is  to  color,  or 
stain,  as  before  shown ;  and  to  color  or  stain  with  blood 
is  the  meaning  in  the  apocalyptic,  and  also  in  the  pro- 
phetic vision,  where  the  word  is  found.  The  blood- 
stained vesture  is  the  subject.  The  mode  of  its  stain- 
ing neither  of  the  inspired  men  leaves  doubtful,  though 
on  modes  of  any  sort  no  thought  of  theirs  could 
have  rested ;  if,  even  in  the  far-off  distance,  they  could 
have  had  a  glimpse  of  any  strife  about  modes  among  any 
of  those  redeemed  by  the  precious  blood  of  Him  who  is 
called  the  Word  of  God.  Some  have  supposed  that  St. 
John  beheld  his  Lord  as  he  had  long  before  seen  Him 
on  the  Cross,  stained — baptized  with  His  own  precious 
blood.  That  was  not  an  immersion.  But  the  great 
Kedeemer,  by  both  prophet  and  apostle,  in  like  words 
which   describe  the  same  vision,  is   represented   as   a 


BAPTO.  61 

mighty  warrior,  stained  with  the  blood  of  His  enemies, 
sprinkled  on  His  vesture,  and  still  pursuing,  'in  the 
greatness  of  His  strength,'  to  '  tread'  the  residue  ia  His 
'  anger,  and  trample  them  in  His  fury !'  Hear  Him : — 
'And  their  blood  shall  be  sprinMed  upon  my  garments : 
And  I  will  stain  all  my  raiment  1'  And  St.  John  says, 
'  He  was  clothed  with  a  vesture  dipped  in  blood.' 
'  Sprinkled^''  says  Isaiah.  '  Sprinkled^''  says  the  Syrian. 
Sprinkled,  say  all  the  circumstances  of  the  vision  in 
both  Testaments.  But,  had  they  all  said  immersed,  the 
entire  context  would  show  that  no  such  immersion  could 
be  intended  as  your  Baptist  friends  contend  for  and 
practise." 

B.  M.  "That's  true.  I  understand,  now,  how  words 
must  be  explained  by  circumstances.  And  all  the  cir- 
cumstances of  all  the  cases  of  Bapto  in  the  ISTew  Testa- 
ment make  the  Baptist  meaning  of  the  word  impossible. 
In  not  one  of  these  cases  can  it  mean  '  immersion  all  over 
under,'  as  they  say  it  always  means, '  and  nothing  else.' " 

I.  "  Yery  well  said.  '  Let  no  man  deceive  you'  again; 
nor  '  bewitch  you'  into  the  slightest  doubt  of  what  you 
have  seen,  and  heard,  and  read ;  proofs  unquestionable, 
that  neither  the  Greek  Bapto^  of  the  original,  nor  the 
English  dip  of  our  New  Testament,  in  a  single  instance 
means  immerse,  or  any  thing  like  it." 

B.  M.  "  I  can  never  again  be  so  bewitched." 

/.  "  So  I  trust,  and  now,  with  one  strong  word  more, 
we  rest  from  this  long  talk.  There  can  be  found  in  no 
work,  scriptural  or  classical,  the  original  of  baptism 
used  in  the  exclusive  sense  of  an  entire  immersion  ;  nor 
is  it  here  believed,  that  the  word  was  ever  strictly  so 
employed,  by  any  respectable  writer,  in  any  language, 
before  the  Anabaptist  convulsions  of  the  sixteenth  cen- 


62  THE   SIXTH  TALK. 

turj ;  when,  says  Coleridge,  '  The  Abolition  of  Magis 
tracy,  Community  of  Goods,  the  Eight  of  Plunder, 
Polj^gamy,  and  whatever  else  was  fanatical,  were  com- 
prised in  the  word  AnabaptisDi.'  " — Aids  to  Reflection.  * 

*  That  this  language  was  not  supposed  or  intended  to  be  offensive 
to  Baptists,  is  shown  by  the  fact  that  it  is  found  in  a  friendly  con- 
versation of  the  author  with  an  English  Baptist,  of  whom  he  says, 
"  both  in  his  own  and  his  father's  right,  a  very  dear  friend  of  mine ;" 
and  wbom  he  calls,  "  My  filial  friend." 


THE  SEVENTH  TALK, 


THE   WOKD-AEGUMENT. 

I.  "  Unexpectedly,  my  Boot-maker's  face  again 
appears  full  of  questions,  as  usual.  What  now?  I 
wonder!" 

B.  M.  "  Good-morning.  I  suppose  you  thouglit  you 
had  got  rid  of  nie ;  but  I  have  come  for  more  talk." 

/.  (  With  a  sigh  of  resignation.)  "  Well,  sit  down,  and 
freely  and  briefly  make  your  wants  known.  You  have 
no  need  of  more  talk  about  modes,  I  hope,  as  yet  un- 
satisfied?— as  a  lingerer  yet  among  the  miserables?  I 
had  hoped  very  confidently  that  your  cure  was  complete. 
Do  you  feel  any  remaining  symptoms  of  hydro-Gala- 
tianism?" 

B.  M.  "  ]^o.  I  am  quite  well,  I  thank  you;  and  in  no 
fear  of  a  relapse." 

I.  "  Very  glad  am  I  to  hear  that.  What,  then,  is  the 
more  talk  to  be  about  now  ?" 

B.  M.  "  If  you  can  spare  the  time,  I  would  like  a  talk 
about  the  way  the  Baptists  have  to  decoy  the  people,  on 
all  their  baptismal  occasions." 

/.  "Po  you  mean  their  Sunday  processions  to  the 
river,  to  arrest  the  public  attention,  and  to  lead  the  ex- 
citable, the  feeble,  the  foolish  and  the  unstable  from 
their  own  places  of  worship  ?" 


64  THE   SEVENTH  TALK. 

B.  M.  "  1^0 ;  but  what  tlie  minister  does  and  says  at 
the  river,  and  at  the  time  of  the  baptism." 

/.  "  Well,  what  is  it  that  he  does  and  says  to  decoy 
the  people?" 

B.  M.  "  He  never  fails  to  quote,  and  to  refer  to 
Scripture  expressions  in  a  way  to  catch  the  ears  of  the 
multitude,  who  flock  to  witness  the  exciting  scene ;  and 
I  want  to  be  able  to  show  that  his  use  of  them  is  un- 
authorized by  Scripture." 

I.  "•  And  if  unauthorized,  of  course  forbidden.  Per- 
haps I  may  not  know  what  you  mean  by  his  quotations 
and  references.  What  are  the  particulars  of  his  proceed- 
ings, on  his  baptismal  occasions?" 

B.  3£  "  What  I  would  say  is,  that,  by  the  frequent 
use  of  Scripture,  he  aims  to  impress  on  the  minds  of  the 
spectators,  that  he  is  showing  them  how  John  the  Bap- 
tist immersed  the  Saviour,  and  how  all  baptisms  were 
administered  in  New  Testament  times." 

/.  "  And  do  you  think  he  generally  succeeds  in  so 
impressing  the  multitude?" 

B.  M.  "  Yes ;  I  have  not  a  doubt  of  it." 

I.  "And  what  are  the  texts  that  he  so  successfully 
employs  ?" 

B.  M.  "Besides  his  never-forgotten  'going  down  into 
the  water,'  and  'coming  up  out  of  the  water,'  as  belong- 
ing to  every  case  of  baptism  in  the  New  Testament,  and 
so,  as  he  says,  representing  burial  in  the  grave,  and 
resurrection  from  the  grave,  he  brings  in  St.  Paul's 
'  buried  with  Christ  in  baptism,'  as  alluding  directly  to 
this  very  mode  shown  before  their  eyes,  of  so  plunging 
the  convert  under  water,  and  then  lifting  him  out  again." 

I.  "  And  does  he  suit  the  action  to  the  word  ?" 

B,M.  "  Always.     And  he  acts  and  speaks  so  confi- 


THE  WORD-ARGUMENT.  65 

dently  as  to  make  it  impossible  that  it  sliould  fail  to  im- 
press ignorant  and  excited  people,  that  what  they  see  is 
a  true  exhibition  of  the  Scripture  mode  of  baptism." 

/.  "Yer J  likely.  And  it  is  shocking  to  think  what 
such  deceivers  may  have  to  answer  for!" 

B.  If.  "  Then  he  speaks  of  the  '  much  water^'  where 
John  baptized  in  ^non,  as  establishing  the  mode  by  im- 
mersion. Often,  so  as  to  reach  the  whole  multitude,  in 
the  loudest  tones  he  can  raise,  he  says,  '  Why  should 
John  want  much  water  if  he  did  not  immerse,  or  plunge 
the  people,  but  only  sprinkle  them?'  And  the  word 
sprinkle^  he  is  sure  to  speak  in  a  tone,  and  with  a  smile 
of  contempt.  By  some  ministers,  this  is  so  funny  as 
to  set  the  people  in  a  roar  of  laughter ;  partly  of  appro- 
bation of  the  performer,  and  partly  of  scorn  of  all 
sprinklers." 

I.  "  A  horrible  mockery  of  sacred  things !  And  that 
part  of  the  multitude  that  never  fail  to  attend  on  such 
religious  spectacles  to  find  material  to  oppose  all  religion, 
can  not  fail  to  be  satisfactorily  edified.  But  what  is  it 
you  desire  with  regard  to  these  things?" 

j5.  if.  "I  wish  to  be  able  intelligibly  to  tell  such  as 
may  be  willing  to  hear,  that  a  minister  has  no  right  to 
do  and  say  such  things ;  that  it  is  an  abuse  of  the  Scrip- 
ture, and  that  he  acts  the  part  of  a  deceiver." 

/.  "He  may  no  more  know  that  he  is  acting  such  a 
part,  than  that  he  is  playing  the  buffoon  to  make  people 
laugh ;  which  he  may  be  quite  unconscious  of  As  you 
know  that  there  is  no  provable  instance  of  his  mode  of 
baptism  in  the  Scriptures,  of  course  you  also  know,  that 
he  has  no  right  to  take  for  granted  that  it  was  the  usual 
mode,  and  so  wickedly  to  sneer  at  all  other  modes  in  use 
in  the  whole  Church,  his  own  modern  sect  alone  ex- 


66  THE  SEVENTH  TALK. 

cepted.  Kot  to  speak  of  his  sarcasms  and  sneers,  you. 
can  be  at  no  loss  about  his  frightful  abuse  of  the  Scrip- 
ture language,  which  so  imposingly  he  employs  at  these 
plunging  exhibitions." 

B.  M.  "  But  what  I  want  is  to  know  about  these  texts, 
so  as  to  make  others  understand  how  the  Scriptures  are 
misused,  and  themselves  imposed  on." 

/.  "  Seldom  with  profane  intention,  I  dare  say.  That, 
however,  helps  not  the  case  of  the  victimized.  Well, 
let  us  try  what  may  be  done  in  this  matter,  in  defence 
of  the  weak,  the  ignorant,  the  sensitive,  and  the  silly. 
How  to  dispose  of  the  going  down  into  the  water,  and 
coming  up  out  o/"the  water,  you  are  already  well  enough 
prepared.  In  the  single  case  of  Philip  and  the  eunuch  is 
this  manner  of  speech  nsed,  you  remember,  and  that  the 
minister  has  no  right  to  quote  it  as  an  authority,  or  to 
attempt  to  exemplify  it  by  plunging  his  subject,  without 
also  plunging  himself;  for,  if  went  into  means  went  un- 
der^ then  both  Philip  and  the  eunuch  went  under,  as 
must  also  the  modern  minister,  if  he  would  fairly  and 
logically  follow  the  example  of  Philip,  the  ancient  dea- 
con. The  case  is  a  perfectly  plain  one,  and  it  should  be 
insisted  on." 

B.  M.  *' Yes,  that  I  shall  remember;  and,  if  too  hard 
pressed,  the  laughers  may  be  supplied  with  a  new 
subject." 

/.  ''Be  careful  in  handling  edged  tools.  The  least 
offensive  levity  in  sacred  things  may  grow  into  a  habit 
of  irreverence,  and  deeply  injure  the  spirit  that  indulges 
it.  The  Baptist  system,  as  productive  of  delusions  of  an 
injurious  character,  and  especially  as  destroying  the 
peace  of  many  pious  people,  which  is  not  only  conceded, 
but  boasted  of,  is  doubtless  an  evil  and  pernicious  sys- 


THE   WORD-ARGUMENT.  6Y 

tern,  that  should  be  discouraged,  and  in  charity  opposed, 
as  yet  it  has  not  been.  It  must  be  done,  however,  not 
only  lawfully  and  reverently,  but  in  Christian  love  and 
kindness." 

B.  M.  "Is  it  not  lawful  to  meet  them  with  their  own 
weapons  ?" 

/.  "For  answer  to  that  question,  my  friend,  take  the 
Sermon  on  the  Mount.  From  that  learn  to  separate  the 
sin  from  the  sinner,  and  systems  from  subjects.  There 
are  many  good  and  truly  pious  people  among  the  Bap- 
tists ;  quiet,  peaceable,  benevolent ;  and  not  a  few  who 
may  remain  entirely  uncorrupted  by  their  bad  system, 
and  its  prevailing  bitterness  and  exclusive  bigotrj^,  which 
belongs  to  its  very  life-blood,  and  which  as  an  atmos- 
phere is  breathed  by  the  water-bound  sect.  To  offend 
or  wound  one  of  those  good  people — good  in  spite  of 
their  bad  system, — would  be  to  offend  against  the  Grood 
Spirit  of  the  Good  IMaster.  Beware,  then,  how  you  offend 
one  of  these  little  ones,  whatever  the  assaults  upon  your 
peace  by  the  denouncing  zeal  of  bigotry  and  ignorance ; 
or  the  not  less  offensive  compassion  for  your  baptismal 
position." 

B.  M.  "I  shall  try  and  pray  not  to  offend.  But  I 
wish  to  be  armed  with  the  lawful  weapons  of  self-de- 
fence. I  wish  to  know  how  to  use  the  sword  of  the 
Spirit,  which  they  use  offensively,  against  even  the  in- 
nocent, the  feeble  and  the  defenceless." 

I.  "That  may  be  quite  right.  Then  let  us  examine 
the  edge  and  the  point  of  this  sword  of  the  Spirit,  which 
is  the  Word  of  Grod,  which  you  are  right  too  in  thinking 
they  have  injured,  by  thrusting  and  hacking  with  vio- 
lent and  unskilful  hands.     Where  would  you  begin?" 

B.  M.  "With  the  ^much  water ^^  which  so  often  they 


68  THE  SEVENTH  TALK. 

fling  at  us,  and  whic"h  they  seem  to  think  ouglit  alone  to 
settle  the  question  in  favor  of  exclusive  immersion." 

/.  "  They  have  many  settlers  of  the  question.  Please 
read  the  text  ?" 

B.  M,  ''  John  iii.  23.  '  And  John  also  was  baptizing  in 
JEnon,  near  to  Salim,  because  there  was  much  water 
there.'  " 

I.  "As  agreeing  with  their  system  of  notions  and 
verbal  interpretations,  it  doubtless  supplies  them  with  a 
plausible  argument ;  but  of  testimony,  not  a  shadow. 
With  their  habit  of  thought  the  inference  is  strong : — 
'  Strong  as  proofs  of  holy  writ.'  And  as  their  Carson 
says,  'even  under  the  rack,  cries  out.  Immersion!  im- 
mersion !'  Yet  the  inference,  though  less  violent  than 
that  which  infers  under  from  into^  is  violent  still,  and 
destitute  of  every  feature  of  necessity." 

B.  M.  "  And  yet,  they  make  it  a  mighty  argument 
with  the  multitude." 

/.  "And  so  will  they  continue  to  do,  'deceiving  and 
being  deceived.' " 

B.  M.  "Is  it  certain  that  in  this  place  there  was  suf- 
ficient depth  of  water  for  plunging  ?" 

/.  "  There  is  nothing  certain  about  it.  Where  it  was 
is  not  known.  What  it  was  we  only  know  from  its 
name  and  character,  as  given  in  the  text.  It  was  a 
shady  place — a  high  recommendation  in  a  hot  climate — 
so  the  name  means.  There  were  probably  trees  and 
vines,  all  kept  in  their  refreshing  greenness  by  springs 
of  water  from  among  the  rocks — ^many  waters^  the 
better  translation,  as  in  the  Syrian  version.  It  is  not 
probable  that  the  place  was  adapted  to  immersion.  And 
if  John  plunged  his  subjects,  why  leave  the  Jordan, 
where  he  had  baptized  such  multitudes  as  to  put  to 


THE  WOED-AEGUMEXT.  69 

shame  the  aotion  of  his  having  plunged  them  all  ?  It 
was  doubtless,  in  summer,  a  far  pleasanter  place  than  the 
hot  banks  of  the  Jordan.  At  JEnon  the  multitude  en- 
joyed the  '  shadows  of  great  rocks'  and  spreading  trees; 
and  the  many  springs  supplied  them  with  a  cooler  bev- 
erage than  the  Jordan  could  afford.  Grapes  too,  and 
other  wild  fruits  may  have  abounded  there — reasons 
enough  for  preferring  ^non  to  Jordan.  It  was  just  the 
place  for  a  camp-meeting." 

B.  M.  (Looking  at  the  Syrian  Kew  Testament.)  •'  Yes, 
indeed.  But  I  was  thinking  what  a  pity  the  English 
translators  put  much  instead  of  many.  This  translation 
would  have  knocked  out  a  considerable  block  from  under 
the  Baptists'  platform." 

/.  "  They  had  then  no  English  platform  to  knock  the 
foundation-blocks  from  under.  Besides,  the  English  words 
much  and  many  were  then  often  used  in  the  same  sense. 
We  have  in  our  translation  much  ivater  and  many  waters^ 
from  the  same  original,  by  the  same  author — here  and 
in  Kevelations.  Here  there  is  ''much  water' — water 
enough  to  keep  the  font  full  and  to  supply  beverage 
to  the  people ;  and  there  the  bad  woman  is  represented 
as  sitting  on  ''many  icaters^  to  express  her  many  vic- 
tims. '  Custom  is  the  law-maker  of  language,'  and  cus- 
tom allowed  such  use  of  much  and  mctny  in  the  age  of 
our  translation.  Custom  has  since  repealed  the  law,  and 
Webster  decides  that  such  use  is  now  obsolete.  But  it 
was  not  obsolete  for  more  than  a  hundred  years  after 
the  last  of  the  venerable  translators  had  passed  away. 
Nor,  indeed,  is  the  repeal  everywhere  recognized  even 
now,  nor  the  obsoleteness  allowed;  for  we  still  hear 
much  used  when  many  is  meant:  'I  have  much  trouble,' 


YO  THE   SEVENTH   TALK. 

says  the  poor  old  woman,  who  means  many  troubles, 
which  she  proceeds  to  enumerate." 

B.  M.  "Well,  that's  plain  enough.  I  shall  remem- 
ber all  the  sharp  points,  and  be  able,  I  trust,  to  use  them, 
at  least  in  self-defence." 

I.  "So  use  them.  They  are  of  good  metal,  and  will 
not  fail  you  in  such  honest  and  lawful  service.  What 
next?" 

B.  M.  "  'BuKiED  WITH  Christ  in  Baptism.'  These 
words  are  everywhere  considered  as  a  full  answer  to 
all  objections  to  immersion.  In  the  pulpit,  in  the  water, 
the  parlor,  the  kitchen,  the  shop,  the  street — every  Bap- 
tist has  them  at  his  tongue's  end,  as  all  that  is  needed  to 
silence  all  gainsayers." 

I.  "  And  by  such  familiar  use  is  one  of  the  most  sol- 
emnly spiritual  figures  of  the  great  Apostle  wickedly 
profaned.  It  is  with  reluctance  that  I  proceed  to  expose 
this  profanation !  I  feel  almost  as  if  a  partaker  in  their 
sin !  But  if  the  prevention  of  human  misery  be  the 
question,  then  I  may  not  shrink  from  the  unpleasant 
task.  With  this  plain  assertion  it  is  here  begun : — In 
the  use  of  the  word  BUEIED,  St.  Paul  is  not  s'pealdmj  of  an 
outward  action  at  all,  hut  of  a  spiritual  effect  upon  the  soid 
of  the  Christian  convert.  What  a  lamentable  loss  that  it 
had  ever  been  otherwise  understood.  Do  you  know  any 
thing  of  the  manner  of  the  burial  of  the  dead  in  the  time 
and  country  of  the  Apostles  ?" 

B.  M.  "  Was  it  different  from  ours?" 

/.  "It  was  nothing  like  it.  Baking  bread  in  an  oven, 
and  covering  it  with  coals  and  ashes  on  the  hearth,  are 
not  more  unlike." 

B.M,  "Then  I  must  confess  to  knowing  nothing 
about  it." 


THE  WOKD- ARGUMENT.  71 

I.  "And  yet,  just  as  much  as  your  Baptist  neighbors, 
and  they  just  as  much  as  many  learned  commentators, 
controversialists  and  preachers  seem  to  know,  without 
as  well  as  within  the  Baptist  pale.  They  speak  of  the 
o])en  grave^  and  of  shovelling  the  earth  in  upon  the 
coffin  ;  as  if  St.  Paul  alludes  to  such  a  burial ! — an  iiU' 
mersion  under  ground !  Of  such  manner  of  burial  he 
knew  nothing.  He  could  not  therefore  have  used  the 
phrase  '  buried  by  baptism'  in  a  sense  to  represent  im 
mersion.  Impossible.  St.  Paul  knew  about  burning  the 
dead  in  some  countries ; — he  had  seen  the  dead  in  Pales- 
tine introduced  into  horizontal  caves  and  excavations  in 
the  rocks  above  ground,  and  entombed  in  monumental 
sepulchres ;  but  a  coffined  corpse  buried  under  ground, 
there  is  neither  proof  nor  probability  that  he  ever  saw 
or  heard  of.  It  is,  then,  simply  absurd  to  suppose  that 
he  could  have  made  an  allusion  to  such  a  burial.  The 
'new  tomb — hewn  out  of  a  rock,'  large  enough  for 
Peter  and  John  to  enter  together — the  sepulchre  in  the 
garden  of  Joseph  of  Arimathea,  he  had  seen,  and  the 
stone  from  its  mouth  heavenly  hands  had  rolled  away  ! 
And  of  the  burial  of  some,  he  may  have  seen  of  the 
seven  millions  of  bodies  buried  in  the  Catacombs,  each 
wrapped  in  its  linen  cloth,  and  occupying  its  ovenlike 
sepulchre  in  the  perpendicular  side  of  the  rocky  cavern, 
where  their  remains  still  are  seen.  But  never  could  he 
have  seen  such  a  burial  as  a  Baptist  immersion  under 
water  would  give  the  slightest  notion  of; — the  most  dis- 
tant resemblance.  You  must  perceive,  then,  that  all  this 
talk  about  St.  Paul  supplying  an  unanswerable  argu- 
ment, or  evidence  for  their  mode  of  baptism,  is  nothing 
worth  ; — mere  noisy,  delusive  air-beating;  'full  of  sound 
and  fury,  signifying  nothing,'  but  to  betray  the  igno- 


72  THE   SEVENTH  TALK. 

ranee  and  error  of  the  deluded:  —  the  deceived  de- 
ceivers." 

B.  M.  •'  Yes,  I  perceive  and  understand,  that  unless 
the  apostle  spoke  of  such  burials  as  ours,  in  under-ground 
graves,  it  all  goes  for  nothing." 

I.  "  To  be  sure,  it  does.  And  as  for  the  word  grave^ 
it  is  never  once  found  in  the  New  Testament,  in  our 
sense  of  the  word ;  but  when  used  as  a  place  of  burial, 
it  means  a  tomb  or  sepulchre,  as  the  grave  of  Lazarus. 
B J  the  way,  what  sort  of  a  grave  was  that  ?" 

B.  M.  "It  was  a  cave,  and  a  stone  lay  upon  it." 

/.  "  Rather,  as  we  should  say,  against  it ;  or,  as  in  the 
Syriac,  '  upon  its  entrance.'  What  more  about  the  grave 
of  Lazarus?" 

B.  M.  "Jesus  said,  '  Take  ye  away  the  stone.'  " 

I.  "Yes;  and  'they  took  away  the  stone.'  There 
was  no  superincumbent  earth  to  be  removed,  under 
which  the  body  had  been  immersed.  There  was  no 
coffin  to  be  opened.  At  the  omnipotent  command, 
Lazarus  came  forth  with  his  grave-clothes  on.  Now,  so 
full  is  this  description,  and  still  more  full  that  of  the 
burial  of  the  crucified  Body  in  the  garden,  as  to  make 
it  very  humiliating,  that  Scripture  readers  should  so 
blunder  about  ancient  burials  as  to  suppose  them  like 
our  own,  and  so  bearing  some  resemblance  to  a  Baptist 
immersion  under  water.  And  when  such  men  as 
Whitby  and  Lowman  permit  such  blunders  of  their  ig- 
norant assistants  to  pass  uncorrected,  it  is  mortifying 
exceedingly.  You  are  now  satisfied,  it  is  hoped,  that 
from  this  source  the  Baptists  can  not  honestly  derive 
either  help  or  comfort  ?" 

B.  M.  "I  am  satisfied  of  all  this.  St.  Paul  certainly 
gives  no  such  lessons  on  the  mode  of  baptism  as  he  has 


THE   WORD-ARGUMENT.  73 

been  declared,  and  perhaps  even  generally  supposed 
to  give'.  But  what  is  it  that  he  seems  so  earnest  to 
teach?" 

I.  "It  is  the  great,  saving  and  blessed  doctrine  of 
sanctification  of  character, — '  body,  soul  and  spirit.'  The 
gentile  members  of  the  Church,  to  which  this  ej^istle  was 
addressed,  particularly  required  such  teaching.  From  a 
deeply  corrupt  state  of  heathenism,  they  had  been  con- 
verted. Nothing  short  of  a  spiritual  death  and  burial 
could  purify  and  heal  them.  They  were  '  filled  with  all 
unrighteousness  !'  No  quantity  of  water  could  remove 
tlieir  moral  filthiness.  In  the  strongest  terms  he  must, 
therefore,  declare  the  necessity  of  a  new  life — good, 
pure,  devoted :  an  utter  death  and  burial  of  sin,  and 
of  the  heathen  sinful  character,  and  a  moral  resurrection 
to  a  new  life  and  character,  such  as  the  Grospel  requires. 
To  impress  this  view  on  the  heart,  he  employs  the 
strong  metaphors  so  richly  supplied  by  the  sufferings 
and  the  glorification  of  Christ.  '  Dead  to  sin'  we  are,  if 
trulj  His.  Baptized  into  the  faith  of  Christ,  we  must 
feel  ourselves  baptized  into  His  death,  and  so  '  buried 
■  with  Him' — not  in  the  ground  or  the  water,  but  into 
deaih^  that  so  we  may  be  raised  to  newness  of  life^  as  He 
was  by  His  glorious  resurrection.  The  new  life  of 
righteousness,  into  which  Christian  baptism  initiates, 
requires  the  death  and  burial  out  of  sight  of  the  old 
life,  the  old  body  of  sin.  To  express  this  complete  and 
utter  destruction  of  '  our  old  man'  of  sin — the  sinful 
and  corrupt  old  reprobate  within  us — St.  Paul  employs 
the  three  figures  of  the  cross^  the  deaili  and  the  hurial  of 
Christ! — '  Crucified  with  Christ,  Dead  with  Christ,  Buried 
with  Christ  into  death.'  Kot  into  earth  or  water ;  but 
into  death !  '  Keckon  yourselves  indeed  dead  unto  sin, 
4 


74  THE   SEVENTH  TALK. 

but  alive  unto  God,  through,  or  with,  Jesus  Christ  our 
Lord.  All  these  are  figurative  expressions  of  the  same 
meaning,  inculcating  the  doctrine  of  sanctification  of 
heart  and  life — 'body,  soul  and  Spirit.'  Christ  was 
crucified  for  you.  For  Him,  crucify  your  affections  and 
lusts:  crucify  the  old.  man  of  sin.  Christ  died.  Die 
with  Him  in  your  sins,  that  you  may  rise  to  the  new  life  of 
purity — righteousness,  without  sin.  Christ  was  buried 
in  a  sepulchre.  Let  the  un regenerate  old.  man  of  sin  be 
buried  luith  Him,  that,  in  regeneration  with  Him,  you 
may  rise  to  the  life  eteraal.  If  spiritually  crucified, 
dead  and  buried  with  Him,  then  we  live  no  longer  as 
sinners.  As  sinners  we  are  dead  and  buried  by  baptism, 
by  becoming  his  disciples — into  His  death,  for  us.  So  the 
Apostle  reasons  and  teaches.  In  a  spiritual  sense,  every 
true  disciple  of  Christ  has  been  subjected  to  the  death 
of  Christ.  In  a  like  sense,  they  have  come  to  His  resur- 
rection. They  have  risen  with  him  from  the  wages  oi 
sin.  Dead  and  buried  is  the  sinful  old  man  in  Adam. 
Alive  and  resurrected  is  the  spiritual  new  man  in  Christ. 
By  baptism,  the  sacrament  of  initiation — the  seal  of  our 
privileges  and  obligations,  and  the  symbol  of  our  pro- 
fession— we  have  been  buried  with  Him  into  death,  that 
as  Christ  was  raised  from  the  dead  by  the  Glory  of  the 
Father,  so  should  we  rise  from  our  sin — our  death  of 
sin,  and  walk  in  newness  of  life ;  live  the  new  life  of 
Christ  within  us." 

B.  M.  "  All  that  is  perfectly  satisfactory,  and  0  !  how 
glorious.     I  feel  as  if  I  mast  shout." 

/.  "  Let  your  heart  shout  for  joy,  my  friend,  that  in 
Him  who  died  for  you,  if  His,  you  have  been  crucified, 
dead,  buried,  and  so  paid  the  wages  of  sin  which  is 
death.     Sin  no  more.     Have  you  been  planted  together 


THE  WOED-ARGUMENT.  7o 

with  Him  in  the  likeness  of  His  death  ?  In  the  likeness, 
then,  of  His  resurrection  bring  forth  the  fruits  of  the 
spirit.  '  Planted  in  death  for  our  sins,  He  is  now  that 
immortal  Yine,  who  stands  forever  secure  beyond  foes  or 
blight,  rejoicing  in  the  fruitage  of  His  branches.'  " 

B.  M.  "I  wonder  the  Baptists  have  not  added  some- 
thing to  their  mode  of  baptism  to  resemble  the  planting 
of  a  vine,  or  something  else." 

/.  "  l^ever  mind  the  Baptist  fancies  now.  I  must  try 
to  get  through  and  out  of  this  glorious  tangle  of  a  laby- 
rinth—in which  no  water  is — so  laboriously  formed  and 
planted  by  St.  Paul,  in  this  his  sixth  chapter  to  the 
Eomans.  By  the  first  chapter  we  are  taught  what  man- 
ner of  men,  and  what  condition  of  morals,  he  had  to  do 
with.  Let  it  be  well  pondered,  and  there  will  be  no 
disposition  to  charge  the  Apostle,  in  a  letter  to  con- 
verts of  their  past  habits  of  '  iniquity,  lewdness  and  bit- 
terness', with  the  trifling  with  such  people  by  writing  to 
them  about  modes.  Logic,  rhetoric,  eloquence  and  the 
sword  of  the  Spirit,  he  employs  with  resistless  energy, 
to  impress  upon  the  Eoman  converts  to  Christ  the  rea- 
sonableness and  the  necessity  of  sanctification.  In  this 
he  soared  far  above  all  modes.  As  if  doubtful  about 
being  understood,  he  descends  from  the  sublime  figures 
of  the  cross,  the  death,  the  sepulchre,  to  what  they 
could  not  fail  to  understand  —  the  bondage  of  servi- 
tude. Why  he  does  this,  he  explains: — 'because  of 
the  infirmity  of  your  flesh.'  Ye  were  the  slaves  of  a 
cruel,  tyrant  master,  whose  wages  is  death.  Ye  are 
now  emancipated  by  the  Good  Master,  who  has  pur- 
chased you,  and  made  you  to  partake  with  Himself  of 
the  victory  that  has  overcome  the  world,  the  flesh  and 
the  devil.     Then,  as  Christ's  freedmen, — risen  with  Hira 


76  THE   SEVENTH   TALK. 

from  death, — by  Him  freed  from  the  hard  and  fruit- 
less toil  of  a  sinful  servitude;  let  sin  no  more  have 
dominion  over  you.  Let  the  old  body  of  sin  be  de- 
stroyed— let  the  miserable  bondman  of  Satan  rest  in  the 
grave  from  which  there  is  no  resurrection !  Let  the  free 
man,  redeemed  and  sanctified,  come  forth  alive  unto  God, 
risen  with  Christ  to  newness  of  life.  To  such  spiritual 
newness  of  life  may  we  all  arise,  and  then  mere  modes 
will  never  trouble  us  more." 

B.  M,  "Amen!     Amen!' 

And  with  this  devout  response,  and  parting  thanks, 
my  good  Methodist  Boot-maker  retires. 


NOTES 


Note  A.—"  WTiai  a  Sinner  /" 

In  a  highly  appreciative  Review  of  the  "  Life  and  Times 
of  Carey,  Marshman  and  Ward,"  in  "  The  London  Quar- 
terly^'''' following  a  glowing  description  of  the  first  baptism, 
by  Dr.  Carey,  the  reviewer  says  : 

"  Perhaps  we  feel  all  the  more  touched  with  this  ceremony, 
from  the  fact,  that  we  are  thorough  anti-immersionists.  It  is 
as  certain  that  '  dip'  in  our  English  version  is  never  haptize 
in  the  original,  as  it  is  impossible  to  say  where  three  thou- 
sand people  could  be  immersed  in  a  day  in  Jerusalem.  Be- 
sides, we  do  not  believe  that  any  living  soul  ever  saw  one 
man  immersed  by  another  (unless  he  were  a  European  Bap- 
tist) in  all  the  East,  on  any  occasion.  We  have  watched  for 
the  phenomenon  in  India,  Egypt,  Arabia,  Palestine ;  but 
never  once  saw  a  native  of  those  countries  immerse  himself. 
No  doubt  they  do  dive  or  duck  sometimes,  but  we  never 
saw  it.  .  .  .  .  There  was  a  tale  told,  we  know  not  how 
true,  of  a  Baptist  translation  into  Bengalee,  which,  in  making 
the  word  *  baptize'  mean  '  immerse,'  got  a  term  which  meant 
*  to  drown.'  When  the  people  heard  of  multitudes  being 
'  drowned'    by  John,  they  innocently  murmured,   '  What  a 


smner  i 


!'" 


Note  B.— "  My  Boot-Maker:' 

It  was  objected  by  a  literary  friend,  who  looked  over  the 


78  NOTES. 

manuscript,  that  the  style  and  rhetoric  of  My  Boot-Maker 
was  as  good  as  mine.  I  replied,  "  that  is  not  saying  much ; 
for  the  style  and  rhetoric  of  many  a  cordwainer  are  far  better 
than  mine ;  for  examples :  Bloomfield,  Gifford,  Dick,  Dr. 
Carey ;  to  say  nothing  of  Roger  Sherman,  and  many  of  later 
times.  Besides,  among  the  Methodists,  many  of  their  shrewd- 
est local  preachers  are  of  the  "  gentle  craft." 

Note  C. — ^^  A  figment  extravagantly  fanatical^  ■  Page  10. 

"  There  are  some  extravagances  so  absurd  as  to  be  really 
unworthy  of  serious  fefutation ;  and  yet,  such  is  the  influence 
of  authority  with  multitudes,  that  they  will  read  and  acquiesce 
in  any  thing  that  may  emanate  from  a  favorite  system  or 
teacher,  without  taking  the  trouble  to  examine  or  even  to 
think  whether  it  be  susceptible  of  proof  It  is  this  considera- 
tion, and  none  other,  which  prevails  upon  me,  not  without 
reluctance,"  says  the  learned  and  judicious  Dr.  Turner,  "to 
take  notice  of,"  &c. — an  absurd  theory  of  interpretation — 
"  which  appears  in"  a  Theological  and  Literary  Journal. 

Let  "  this  consideration"  be  my  apology,  so  endorsed,  for 
taking  notice  of  absurdities  in  the  exclusive  theory  of  the 
Baptists. 

Note  D. — "  0  foolish  GalatiansP  Gal.  iii.  1.  Pages 
11,  12. 

"  Foolish,"  dvoTjTor  :  Senseless ;  without  consideration  and 
reflection.  Comp.  Luke,  24,  25.  "  Bewitched."  The  Apos- 
tle thus  expresses  his  amazement  at  the  foolish  conduct 
of  the  Galatians,  as  if,  to  the  imminent  danger  of  their  ulti- 
mate ruin,  they  had  been  fascinated  by  some  most  inexplica- 
ble influence  operating  like  a  supposed  charm.  The  use  of 
the  terms  merely  implies  deceit  and  cunning  on  the  part  of 
the  false  teachers,  and  ignorance  and  simplicity  in  those  whom 
they  had  beguiled. 


NOTES.  T9 

The  Apostle  puts  a  case  which  evidently  arises  from  his 
strong  feeling  of  the  irrational  and  even  silly  procedure  of  the 
Galatians.  It  is  the  reduciio  ad  absiirdum  ;  as  if  he  had  said  : 
"  Answer  me,  I  pray  you,  this  one  question  ;  I  will  trouble 
you  with  nothing  else.  From  whence  did  you  receive  the 
Holy  Spirit,  the  divine  agent  who  has  dispensed  his  miracu- 
lous gifts  and  ordinary  graces  among  you  ?  Did  you  receive 
his  influences  from  obedience  to  the  Mosaic  Law,  or  from 
faith  in  the  system  of  the  Gospel,  made  known  to  you  by 
open  proclamation,  and  thus  heard  and  accepted]" — Turner 
on  the  Epistle  to  the  Galatians. 

This  logic  applied  to  the  essence  of  a  mode,  and  what 
becomes  of  if?     It  is  at  once  a  non-essence. 

Barnabas. — The  blameable  conduct  of  St.  Peter,  in  refus- 
ing to  mingle  freely  with  the  Gentile  converts,  through  an 
improper  desire  to  please  those  Jewish  converts  who  were 
bigoted  legalists,  seduced  many  other  Jewish  converts,  and 
even  Barnabas  himself —  Vide  Turner  on  Gal.  ii. 

Note  E. — John  the  founder  of  a  Jewish  sect. 

"  Our  Lord  was  not  immersed ;  and  if  He  had  been,  the 
mode  of  a  Jewish  ceremony — by  the  founder  of  a  temporary 
Jewish  sect — as  was  John's  baptism,  could  have  been  of  no 
binding  authority  in  the  Christian  Church."     Page  13. 

Many  pious  leaders  in  religious  enterprises,  since  John  the 
Baptist,  have  unintentionally  become  founders  of  religious 
sects.     So  may  it  have  been  in  his  case. 

That  more  than  one  sect  claim  him  as  their  founder  may  bo 
seen  somewhat  at  large  in  "  Duncan's  Life,  &c.,  of  John  the 
Baptist." 

In  a  learned  and  instructive  article,  under  his  name,  in 
"Kitto's  Cyclopedia'  of  Biblical  Literature,"  speaking  of 
"John's  embassy  of  his  disciples  to  Jesus,  which  is  recorded 
in  Matt.  xi.  3  ;  Luke,  vii.  19,"  is  found  this  remark  :  "  If  any 


80  NOTES. 

doubt  had  grown  up  in  the  Baptist's  mind,  it  was  most  prob- 
ably owing  to  the  defective  spirituality  of  his  views;  for 
even  of  him  Jesus  has  declared,  '  he  that  is  least  in  the  king- 
dom of  heaven  is  greater  than  he'  (Matt.  xi.  11.)  Were  this 
the  case,  it  would  itself  account,  not  only  for  the  embassy 
sent  by  John  to  Jesus,  but  also  for  the  continuance  and  per- 
petuation of  John's  separate  influence  as  the  founder  of  a  sect. 

Duncan  says,  quoting  St.  Matthew  and  Josephus.  "  The 
sect  which  the  disciples  of  the  Baptist  constituted  after  his 
death,  becoming 'separated  and  excluded  from  Judaism,  was 
treated  with  ignominy  by  the  people  at  large,  while  their 
master,  John,  was  regarded  as  a  just  man,  and  a  prophet. 
This  recognition  his  followers  subsequently  urged  to  the  utmost 
extreme ; — attributing  to  him  miraculous  powers,"  &c. 

One  of  the  Rev.  Speakers,  Willett,  from  Wisconsin,  at  the 
late  Baptist  Aimiversary,  said :  "  Than  Wisconsin  there  was 
not  a  nobler  field  for  the  Baptists.  He  had  led  them  up  out 
of  the  rivers,  when  the  thermometer  stood  ten  degress  below 
zero,  with  icicles  four  or  five  inches  long  hanging  on  their 
heavy  whiskers.  But  they  looked  good  as  they  came  up,  and 
their  faces  shone.  The  Baptists  would  have  to  work  hard  to 
keep  up  with  the  Methodists." 

"  John  the  Baptist  was  the  first  John,  then  John  Calvin,  and 
then  John  Wesley.  He  wanted  to  see  John  the  Baptist  go 
ahead  of  the  other  Johns." 

This  Rev.  Mr.  Willett  thus  plainly  seems  to  claim  John, 
the  Jewish  prophet — ih.Q  forerunner,  but  never  a  follower  of 
Christ — as  the  founder  of  the  Baptist  church  as  now  existing ! 

Note  Y. —  Challenge  and  Resolve. 

"  It  shocks  me  to  think  of  such  a  seeming  challenge."  Page 
15. 

But  the  Baptists  have  a  stereotyped  challenge  to  show  that 
the  word  baptize  ever  means  less,  in  the  New  Testament, 


NOTES.  81 

than  an  entire  immersion ;  and  though  a  thousand  times  suc- 
cessfully met,  and  their  official  declaration,  that  "  the  nations 
of  the  earth  must  look  to  the  Baptist  denomination  alone  for 
faithful  translations  of  the  word  of  God,"  proved  to  be  as 
absurd  as  arrogant,  yet  both  the  challenge  and  the  "  Resolve" 
still  keep  their  place  unblushing. 

Note  G. — "  Set  apart  or  consecrated  hy  JohnP     Page  20. 

"  It  does  not  appear  that  John  the  Baptist  baptized  disciples 
into  any  particular  name.  The  Jewish  dispensation  was  still 
subsisting,  and  his  ministry  appears  to  have  been  supplemen- 
tary to  that  dispensation,  rather  than  the  commencement  of 
the  Christian.  Indeed,  the  great  truths  connected  with  the 
death  of  our  Lord  form  so  the  whole  foundation,  both  of 
Christian  Baptism  and  of  Christianity,  that  till  His  Crucifixion 
and  Resurrection  the  new  dispensation  could  not  be  fully 
opened  and  proclaimed." — Bickersteth. 

"  The  baptism  of  our  Lord  was  a  connecting  link  between 
the  ordinances  of  the  Old  and  the  of  New  Testament." — lb. 

And  the  new  link  was,  of  course,  made  after  the  pattern  of 
the  old  chain,  reaching  back  to  Aaron's  consecration  to  the 
work  of  the  High-Priesthood. 

Note  H. — "^  picture." — The  Martyr  Artists.     Page  22. 

"  In  the  Astor  Library's  great  work  on  the  Catacombs  of 
Rome,  there  are  numerous  pictures  representing  the  Baptism 
of  Our  Lord.  Several  of  them  are  highly  colored  and  elabo- 
rated with  ornamentation.  These  are,  no  doubt,  of  a  later 
age  than  the  very  rude  and  simple  sketches,  which  may  have 
been  made  from  memory  by  some  early  martyr  who  had 
witnessed  the  baptism  at  Jordan,  in  the  fulfilment  of  all 
Righteousness." 

Note  I. — "^  cart-load  of  splendid  volumes.''''     Page  25. 
Among  the  numerous  representatives  of  Christian  baptism 
4* 


82  NOTES. 

in  Ferret's  great  work  on  the  Catacombs,  I  found  not  one  of 
immersion. 

From  the  .varieties  of  pictures  representing  the  Sacrament 
of  Baptism,  it  clearly  appears  that  in  different  countries  and 
ages  different  modes  obtained.  I  have  before  me  two  pictures 
of  baptism  by  pouring  water,  from  a  pitcher  in  the  hands  of 
the  minister,  on  the  head  of  the  subject.  In  one  of  them  the 
subject,  a  boy,  is  standing ;  in  the  other,  a  man  is  kneeling. 
The  boy  is  nude,  excepting  his  loins.  The  man  is  in  Oriental 
costume,  while  supplicating  the  Divine  grace,  near  the  font ; 
and  then,  in  another  position,  but  kneeling,  his  clothes  turned 
down  to  his  waist,  the  water  is  poured  on  his  head  from  a 
pitcher  in  the  hand  of  the  minister. 

The  baptism  of  the  boy  was  witnessed  by  a  modern  trav- 
eller in  Abyssinia,  the  Church  of  which  was  descended  from 
the  Church  of  Alexandria  in  Egypt,  founded  there  by  St.  Mark 
the  Evangelist,  who,  there  is  reason  to  believe,  baptized  after 
the  same  mode. 

Tlie  baptism  of  the  man  is  after  the  mode  in  England,  per- 
haps a  thousand  years  ago. 

Note  J. — Ancient  Font  or  Baptistry. 

^^  Its  dimensions  forbid  all  oiotions  of  adult  immersion.^^ 
Page  26. 

It  is  two  feet  in  diameter,  and  round — ^not  "  so7ne  two  feet 
deep  and  wide,"  as  says  Mr.  Hodges,  leaving  it  possible  to 
be  long  enough  for  an  immersion.  It  is  cut  out  of  the  rock, 
and  the  water  supplied  by  a  dripping  spring.  "  In  the  rock 
at  the  end,  is  sketched  the  baptism  of  Jesus  by  pouring." 
The  subterranean  recess  where  this  font  is  found,  was  un- 
doubtedly a  catacomb  of  Christians  during  the  persecutions 
of  Christianity ;  for  inscriptions — such  as,  "  Who  received 
the  Crown  of  Martyrdom,"  "  Who  was  Decapitated" — were 
found  visible.     It  was  most  certainly  a  place  of  baptism  du- 


NOTES.  "83 

ring  the  persecutions  of  the  first  century,  and  this  font  may 
have  been  excavated  by  a  convert  of  St.  Paul,  and  the 
picture  scratched  in  the  rock. 

Bishop  Kip  says,  "  The  spirit  of  the  First  Ages  is  so  in- 
delibly stamped  on  the  walls  of  the  catacombs,  that  no  soph- 
istry can  explain  away  its  force.  There  tlie  elements  of  a 
pure  faith  are  written  with  an  iron  pen  in  the  rock  for  ever." 
—  Vide  Northcote^  Kip^  Fuller,  Hodges,  dx. 

Note  K. — "  Work  on  the  Catacombs'''     Page  26. 

Should  any  of  my  readers  wish  to  become  acquainted  with 
the  subject  of  the  Catacombs,  who  may  not  be  able  to  consult 
the  great  work  in  the  Astor  Library,  they  may  obtain  a  good 
knowledge  of  them  from  the  excellent  little  work  of  Bishop 
Kip,  which  contains  a  great  number  of  very  striking  illustra- 
tions. There  is  also,  by  Northcote,  an  English  Romanist,  a 
small  work  of  considerable  merit.  Both  authors  tell  what 
they  saw ;  and  both  works  cost  but  a  small  sum,  compared 
with  their  great  value. 

Note  L. — "  Tlie  Cemeteries  of  the  Martyrs^     Page  28. 

Of  the  computed  seven  millions  of  graves  contained  in  the 
nine  hundred  miles  of  excavated  passages,  or  streets,  in  the 
Roman  Catacombs,  a  very  large  number  of  them  are  sup- 
posed, without  doubt,  to  have  been  of  Christian  Martyrs. 
How  large  it  is  impossible  to  decide. 

"When  I  was  a  boy,"  says  St.  Jerome,  "being  educated 
at  Rome,  I  used  every  Sunday,  in  company  with  other  boys 
of  my  own  age  and  tastes,  to  visit  the  tombs  of  the  Apostles 
and  Martyrs,  and  go  into  the  crypts  which  are  excavated  in 
the  bowels  of  the  earth.  The  walls  on  either  side  as  you 
enter  are  full  of  the  bodies  of  the  dead,  and  the  whole  place 
is  so  dark  that  one  seems  almost  to  see  the  fulfilment  of 


84  NOTES. 

those  words  of  the  prophet,  '  Let  them  go  down  alive  into 
Hades. "     St.  Jerome  was  born  a.  d.  331. 

The  wonderful  extent  of  the  Catacombs  seems  to  have  been 
quite  unknown  even  so  early  as  the  age  of  St.  Jerome ;  and,  in 
A.  D.  761,  so  ignorant  of  it  was  even  the  Court  of  Rome,  that 
Paul  I.  declared  that  "  by  the  impious  Lombards  they  had 
been  thoroughly  destroyed!"  How  little  could  then  have 
been  known  of  their  extent ;  and  not  more  of  the  number  of 
the  dead  deposited  in  them,  when  the  same  Paul  I.  thought 
he  had  fulfilled  the  pious  duty  of  removing  the  last  of  them 
within  the  walls  of  the  city !  Little  thought  was  there  then, 
and  almost  a  thousand  years  after,  that  the  dead  in  the  Cata- 
combs far  outnumbered  the  living  of  the  palmiest  days  of 
Rome ! 

Note  M. — "  The  term' AnahapiisV    Page  29. 

This  term  is  not  used  reproachfully,  but  historically  ;  as  in- 
dicating a  furious  faction  of  religious  and  political  flinatics, 
who  made  their  bloody  mark  in  Germany  more  than  three 
hundred  years  ago. 

Our  good  Christian  brethren  who  have  appropriated  to 
themselves  the  title  of  Baptists  are,  generally,  far  from  being 
furious,  factious,  or  fanatical.  They  make  no  bloody  marks. 
Let  them  not  then  take  offence  at  the  use  of  this  historical 
term,  as  if  in  the  use  of  it  a  reproach  is  cast  upon  them. 
Freely  and  frankly  we  may  declare  them  in  no  degree  re- 
sponsible, historically  or  otherwise,  for  the  crimes  of  that 
faction,  and  in  nowise  to  be  reproached  as  if  it  were  the 
origin  of  their  respectable  sect. 

And  now,  from  this  declaration,  may  we  not  proceed,  with- 
out offence,  to  say  one  word  about  this  term  %  In  appropriat- 
ing to  themselves  the  title  Baptists,  that  is,  Baptizers,  they 
deny  that  any  but  themselves  baptize.  This  is  not  a  mere 
inference,  they  so  explicitly  declare.     Now,  how  is  the  rest 


NOTES.  85 

of  Christsndom  expected  to  meet  this  hard  measure  of  exclu- 
sion from  the  visible  Church  1  May  we  not  be  allowed  to 
insist  that  we,  too,  are  baptizers,  though  we  may  not  immerse, 
as  they  do  ?  I  hope  so.  But  then,  in  thus  insisting,  as  we 
think  we  are  right  in  doing,  we  inevitably  charge  them — we 
cannot  help  ourselves — with  rebaptizing  proselytes  from  our 
folds ! 

To  call  them  Anabaptists,  then — rebaptizers — ^baptizers 
«72a,  or  anew,  is  certainly  less  discourteous,  however  they 
may  repel  the  title,  than  for  them  to  call  themselves  Baptists, 
in  the  sense  and  with  the  intention  of  denying  our  baptism. 
Surely,  simple  fair-play  seems  to  demand  of  them  to  allow 
us,  in  self-defence,  the  same  freedom  of  speech  which  them- 
selves claim  and  use.  We  ask  no  more.  We  shall  not  use 
it  as  they  do.  We  shall  not  virtually  excommunicate  them 
as  they  do  us.  On  their  own  platform  let  them  deny  that 
they  are  Anabaptists.  They  have  the  right.  Who  shall 
deny  it  to  them  1  Not  I.  But  from  my  own  platform,  with 
all  unimmersing  Christendom,  I  must  be  permitted  to  call 
them  rebaptizers,  at  the  best.  Anabaptists  means  no  more ; 
but  if  offensive,  we  may  not  employ  it. 

"A  name  which  may  comprehend  any  denomination  of 
Christians  who  are  averse  to  infant  baptism,  and  who  will 
therefore  deem  a  subsequent  admission  by  baptism  necessary, 
in  cases  where  persons  have  been  originally  presented  at  the 
font  as  infants.  We  must,  therefore,  rank  under  the  same 
appellation  as  the  fanatics  of  Munster,  the  Memnonites  of 
Holland,  and  the  Anabaptists  of  England,  who  were,  some 
of  them,  quiet  Christians,  while  others  held  those  pernicious 
doctrines  which  must  tend  to  render  the  name  of  Christianity 
contemptible ;  pretending  to  be  guided  by  an  inward  light, 
they  despised  the  ordinary  advantages  of  knowledge  and 
learning,  and  were  frequently  most  abusive  in  upbraiding 
such  ministers  as  exerted  themselves  in  their  professional 
calling." — Shores  Church  History. 


86  NOTES. 

Of  the  lawless  class  of  "  New  Lights,"  as  called  in  my  boy 
hood,  not  a  few  were  known  at  the  beginning  of  this  century, 
w^hose  character  came  up  to  the  full  measure  of  the  above 
standard.  As  found  in  England,  their  character  was  drawn 
by  the  graphic  pen  of  Robert  Hall,  an  excellent  man  and 
learned  Baptist  minister,  as  so  demoralized  as  to  deny  the 
distinction  between  good  and  evil ;  and  to  hold  nothing  in  re- 
ligion of  equal  value  with  baptism  by  immersion,  which  they 
held  to  be  an  adequate  passport  to  heaven.  May  we  not 
hope  the  class  to  be  extinct  1 

Note  N. — "  The  division  of  the  Bible  into  chapters  arid 
verses.''''     Page  30. 

"The  historical  sketches,  the  poems  and  hymns,  the  pro- 
phecies, memoirs  and  letters,  composing  the  Holy  Volume, 
came  from  the  hands  of  the  Sacred  Penmen,  not  '  found  in 
fashion,'  in  respect  to  chapter  and  verse,  as  they  appear  at 
present.  The  division  into  chapters  was  not  made  till  the 
middle  of  the  thirteenth  century,  or  about  a.  d.  1250.  An 
individual,  bearing  a  title  not  very  attractive  to  protestant 
and  republican  ears,  a  Cardinal,  was  the  author  of  the  arrange- 
ment. The  division  into  verses  at  least  as  respects  the  Old 
Testament,  has  not  so  good  a  paternity  as  even  this ;  judging 
from  the  estimation  prevalent  among  numerous  Christians. 
It  was  introduced  by  one  Athias,  a  Jew  of  Amsterdam,  in  his 
edition  of  the  Hebrew  Bible  published  so  late  as  1661.  The 
division  of  the  New  Testament  into  verses  is  indeed  some- 
what older,  being  made  by  Robert  Stephens,  a  printer,  who 
published  a  New  Testament  in  1551."— T.  W.  Coit,  D.  D. 

Note  O.     Into.— Out  of.     Page  32. 

In  this  same  eighth  chapter  of  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles,  in 
which  is  found  the  baptism  of  the  eunuch,  this  little  Greek 
word  eis^  erroneously  translated  into^  is  nine  times  rendered 


NOTES.  87 

differently.  Thus,  in  verses  3,  5,  25,  27,  and  40,  to  is  the 
translation ;  3  and  5,  to  prison ;  25  and  27,  to  Jerusalem ; 
40,  to  Cesarea. 

In  verses  1 6,  23,  in  is  the  translation  ;  "  in  the  name,"  "  in 
the  gall,"  etc.  In  the  20th,  it  is  loith :  "Thy. money  perish 
with  thee."  In  the  26th,  it  is  unto:  "From  Jerusalem  unto 
Gaza."  In  the  40th,  it  is  at:  "Philip  was  found  «^  Azotus." 
So,  twice  in  this  verse  it  is  translated  not  into. 

In  the  first  verse  of  the  next  chapter,  and  in  several  other 
places  in  the  New  Testament,  it  is  rendered  against.  In  the 
2d,  26,  30,  to  and  unto.     In  21,  for. 

To,  unto,  at,  towarcls,'hy,  are  frequent  renderings,  either  of 
which  would  have  been  good,  and  would  have  saved  floods 
of  controversial  ink,  together  with  a  large  amount  of  what  is 
greatly  more  important  not  to  be  lost — truth  and  love. 

The  decision,  then,  founded  on  a  proven  mistake  in  the 
translation  of  a  Greek  preposition  of  many  meanings,  must 
be  revised,  so  as  to  allow  Philip  and  the  eunuch  to  go  down 
to  the  water — probably  the  little  collection  of  rain-water — 
and  to  stand  by  it,  while  the  water  is  sprinkled  or  2>oured  on 
the  head  of  the  convert,  and  then  to  go  up  from  it ;  one  to 
pursue  his  Divine  mission,  the  other  his  homeward  journey, 
both  rejoicing. 

That  this  little  Greek  word  has  no  definite  meaning,  but  is 
dependent,  for  consideration,  entirely  on  its  connection,  ap- 
pears from  the  various  shapes  which  the  translators  make  it 
assume,  as  on,  to,  in,  unto,  into,  at,  against,  before,  upon,  for, 
towards,  among.  In  more  than  all  these  shapes  it  is  found  in 
our  New  Testament.  That  always  with  a  nice  attention  to 
the  sense,  these  translations  were  made,  none  will  pretend 
who  have  a  right  to  decide. 

"  And  he  commanded  the  chariot  to  stop,  and  they  both 
went  down  to  the  water,  and  Philip  baptized  the  eunuch. 
And  when  they  came  up  from  the  water,  the  Spirit  of  the 
Lord  caught  away  Philip,  and  the  eunuch  saw  him  no  more  ; 


88  '  NOTES. 

but  he  went  on  his  way  rejoicing."  Acts,  viii.  38,  39.  Trans- 
lated literally  from  the  Syriac  Peshito  Version. 

That  "/rom,"  rather  than  out  of^  is  also  the  true  and  literal 
of  the  Greek  Apo,  may  thus  appear : 

Of  the  fifteen  different  meanings  of  the  word,  as  given  with 
examples  from  the  New  Testament,  from  is  the  first,  as  the 
natural  signification.  Of  more  than  six  hundred  instances  of 
the  use  of  this  little  word  in  the  New  Testament,  from  is  the 
usual  translation.  Out  of^  rather  than  from^  is  employed, 
not  from  necessity  as  a  literal  translation,  but  to  express 
something  in  addition  to  make  the  discription  of  an  action 
more  complete,  as  the  translators  supposed  and  intended. 
Yet  a  simple  examination  of  all  the  instances  of  the  phrase 
out  of,  in  the  New  Testament,  will  show  to  any  plain  under- 
standing that/ro7?i  expresses  the  meaning  well  enough,  more 
generally  if  not  more  intensly,  and  often  better,  as  well  as 
more  literally.  The  venerable  translators  seem  to  have  had 
their  souls  so  thoroughly  imbued  with  their  great  responsi- 
bilities to  preserve  the  record  pure,  of  the  great  things  of  the 
faith,  as  to  be  unable  to  descend  to  the  small  things  in  the 
language  of  the  Sacred  Record.  Hence,  probably,  the  not 
always  elegant,  and  sometimes  seemingly  not  well  considered, 
rendering  of  what  they  deemed,  perhaps,  unimportant  words. 

If  we  may  be  able,  in  order  to  make  plain  our  theory  of 
this  matter,  we  beg  leave,  modestly,  to  exemplify  it  by  some 
cases  in  point — as  we  suppose : 

Matt.  iii.  16:  "And  Jesus,  when  He  was  baptised,  went 
up  straightway  out  of  the  water."  The  Evangelist  had  said 
not  a  word  of  his  having  been  in  the  water.  "  When  Jesus 
was  baptized.  He  went  up  immediatly  from  the  water,"  says 
the  original  in  both  Greek  and  Syriac. 

This  is  the  first  out  of  from  o/jo,  in  the  New  Testament. 
Look  now  at  the  last. 

Rev.  xxii.  19  :  Out  of  the  Book  of  Life,"  says  our  own 
blessed  New  Testament.     "  From  the  Tree  of  Life,"  say  botli 


NOTES.  89 

the  Greek  and  Syriac  sense,  supposed  spiritually  the  same ; 
style  and  sound  quite  different. 

One  niay  not  ask,  on  what  grounds,  in  either  of  these  cases, 
the  Greek  apo  was  so  rendered  ;  but  one  niay  conclude,  with- 
out irreverence,  it  is  hoped  that  the  translators  did  not  give 
much  from,  or  out  of,  their  great  treasures  of  golden  talents, 
to  what  they  evidently  consider  small  matters.  Small  mat- 
ters they  would  ever  have  continued  to  be,  had  there  never 
been  any  "causers  of  division." 

"i^Vom,  out  of.  Matt.  vii.  4;  xiv.  29." — Parkhurst. 
"What  meaneth  this  great  Bible-lexicographer  ?  Is  it  that  from 
is  the  preferable  translation  1     "We  may  look  at  these  texts. 

Matt.  vii.  4  :  "  Let  me  pull  out  the  mote  out  of  thine  eye." 
"  Out"  and  "  out,"  not  elegant,  certainly.  From  Parkhurst 
would  prefer  before  out  of.  And  what  says  Dr.  Murdoch's 
Syriac  %  "  Allow  me  to  pluck  the  straw  from  thy  eye." 
The  moral,  or  spiritual  lesson,  is  exactly  the  same ;  but  there 
the  identity  ends.  The  spiritual  sense  in  the  former  is  no  doubt 
purer  than  the  rhetorical. 

Matt,  xiv  .  29 :  "  And  when  Peter  was  come  down  out  of 
the  ship,"  or  "  descended //-owi  the  ship,"  as  the  Syriac  has  it, 
seems  better.  So  Parkhurst  decides.  At  any  rate  out  of  is 
here  neither  necesary,  nor  elegant,  nor  literal. 

So  of  the  other  like  renderings  of  apo,  by  out  of.  They 
prove  nothing,  but  how  little  the  great  English  translators 
care  for  little  things.  That  they  prove  any  thing  in  favor 
of  any  particular  mode  of  baptism,  it  would  seem  impossible 
to  be  believed  by  one  who  had  studied  the  subject  intelligently, 
and  not  under  the  spell  of  a  dominant  prejudice. 

Note  P. — Immersion  not  a  Bible  Word, 

"  There  is  not  a  place  in  the  Bible,  where  it  can  be  shotvn, 
ivith  certainty,  that  the  word  baptism  means  entire  immersion 
and  nothing  else,''"'     Page  35. 


90  NOTES. 

The  following  abridged  extract  from  a  learned  volume,  en- 
titled Bible  Baptism,  may  show  that  the  above  proposition 
might  have  been  even  more  strongly  put : 

1.  God,  in  His  Word,  does  not  command  persons  to  he  im- 
mersed. In  no  portion  of  the  Scriptures  is  it  said  to  any  per- 
son, for  any  purpose  :  Be  immersed.  There  is  no  command 
in  the  Word  of  God,  given  in  any  form  of  language,  requiring 
any  person  to  be  immersed  for  any  purpose  whatever. 

2.  God  does  not  require  any  person  to  immerse  others.  He 
does  not  direct  any  of  his  ministering  servants  to  immerse 
others.  He  does  not,  in  any  passage  of  His  word,  say  to 
any  :  go  ye  and  immerse. 

8.  God  does  not  direct  persoiis  to  be  baptized  by  immersion, 
or  to  baptize  others  in  this  mode.  New  Testament  ministers 
are  commanded  to  "Go — and  teach  all  nations,  baptizing 
them."  {S.  Matt,  xxviii.  19.)  But  they  are  not  told  to  ad- 
minister this  ordinance  by  immersion.  In  no  portion  of  the 
Book  of  God,  are  men  directed  or  authorized  by  any  require- 
ment, to  baptize  by  immersion. 

4.  No  person  speaking  of  himself  or  others,  is,  in  the  Scrip- 
tures, reiwesented  as  saying  I  or  they  immerse,  or  baptize,  or 
luere  baptized  by  immersion.  John  said,  "  I  baptize ;" — and 
Paul,  "  I  baptized ;" — and  another  sacred  writer  :  "  men  and 
women"  were  baptized.  (>S^.  Matt,  iii.  11 ;  1  Cor.  i.  14,  16; 
Acts,  viii.  12.)  But  no  person  mentioned  in  the  Word  of  God, 
says  :  I  immerse,  or  I  immersed,  or  they  immersed,  or  that 
any  individual  baptized  or  was  baptized  by  immersion. 

5.  The  luord  immerse  is  not  found  in  the  word  of  God. 
Any  person  can  determine  this  matter  for  himself  by  reading 
the  Scriptures.  It  is  not  so  much  as  mentioned  by  any  sacred 
writer,  either  in  the  Old  or  New  Testament.  It  is  not  used 
in  God's  Word  for  baptism  or  for  any  other  purpose.  So 
far,  therefore,  are  men  from  being  required,  by  Divine  au- 
thority, to  be  immersed  or  to  immerse  others,  that  the  word 


NOTES.  91 

immerse  itself  is  not  once  used  for  any  purpose  whatever,  in 
any  part  of  the  Scriptures  of  truth. 

6.  Ill  the  original  Scriptures^  men  are  not  commanded  to 
immerse  or  to  be  immersed  for  baptism^  or  to  be  baptized  by 
immersion.  In  the  Greek  language  there  are  two  words 
(efipaTTTG)  and  e^j3a7ZTi^G))  which  frequently,  but  not  always, 
signify  to  put  the  thing  mentioned  entirely  under  water  or 
under  somethmg  else.  Neither  of  these  is  the  very  word  im- 
merse itself;  nor  is  either  of  them,  at  any  time,  used  in  the 
original  Scriptures  to  denote  baptism.  Indeed,  only  one  of 
them  [efifSaiTTG))  is  used  by  the  Spirit  of  God  for  any  purpose 
whatever ;  but  that  one  is  not,  at  any  time  or  in  any  passage, 
in  the  Greek  Testament,  used  to  signify  baptism.  (See  Matt. 
xxvi.  23 ;  Mark,  xiv.  20 ;  John,  xiii.  26,  in  Greek.)  In  the 
original  Hebrew  of  the  Old  Testament,  no  word  is  used  for 
baptism,  which  denotes  immerse.  If  the  King  of  kings  had 
intended  to  inform  the  world  that  immersion  is  the  only 
mode  of  baptism ;  it  is  strange  that  He  has  not  told  men  so 
in  a  single  passage  in  His  own  Holy  Book !  It  is  astonishing 
that  men  should  be  called  upon  to  believe  that  immersion  is 
the  only  mode  of  baptism,  when  the  word  immerse  is  not 
used  so  much  as  once  in  the  whole  Word  of  God  for  baptism, 
or  in  English  for  any  other  purpose !  and  when  neither  of 
the  original  words  which  sometimes  denote  immerse  is,  at 
any  time,  used  in  Scripture  for  baptize.  If  the  word  im- 
merse was  ever  employed  in  the  Scriptures  for  any  purpose 
resembling  baptism ;  men  might  fancy  that,  in  such  an  in- 
stance, the  word  denoted  baptism.  But  how  can  they 
imagine  that  the  word  is  recorded  in  the  Book  of  God,  and 
that  it  denotes  baptism  !  And  then  to  crown  the  imaginary 
climax,  they  appear  to  fancy  that  they  can  make  people  of 
sense  believe  that  immersion  is  not  merely  a  mode,  but  that 
it  is  the  only  mode  of  baptism.  Is  it  possible  for  a  man  to 
believe,  that  God  commands  him  to  be  immersed  or  to  im- 
merse others,  when  the  Scriptures  do  not  so  much  as  mention 


92  KOTES. 

immersion  as  a  mode  of  administering  that  ordinance  1  If 
he  can,  he  can  believe  that  God  commands  what  is  not  so 
much  as  once  mentioned  as  baptism  in  the  whole  of  Divine 
revelation." 

Supplementary. 

"  After  a  rigid  investigation  of  all  that  the  New  Testament 
contains  on  the  subject,  we  affirm  that  there  is  not  a  precept, 
EXAMPLE,  or  ALLUSION  from  which  an  undoubted  inference  for 
immersion  as  the  mode  of  Christian  baptism  can  be  adduced 
Not  one,  that  any  impartial  or  legal  mind  will  admit,  can  be 
made  the  basis  of  an  invariable  law,  to  bind  the  judgment 
and  conscience  of  men." — Hodges. 

Note  Q. — Homer  and  Poi^e. 

"  The  great  Homer  has  a  lake  baptized  with  the  blood  of 
a  frog."     Page  36. 

Pope  happily  translates  the  baptismal  word  by  an  English 

equivalent  which    exactly    expresses    the   meaning   of    the 

original. 

"Gasping  he  rolls,  a  purple  stream  of  blood 
DiSTAiNS  the  surface  of  the  silver  flood." 

Note  R. — Modes  indifferent. 

"  As  no  mode  is  prescribed  in  Scripture,  and  only  the  form 
of  words  commanded ;  one  mode  must  be,  in  itself,  just  as 
good  and  proper  as  another ;  if  as  capable  of  being  performed 
reverently,  and  decently,  and  in  order."     Page  41. 

"  We  believe  that  all  modes  of  Baptism  are  valid.  But 
we  believe  that,  in  some  cases  mentioned  in  the  New  Testa- 
ment, immersion  was  impossible,  and  moreover  that  there  is 
no  case  in  which  the  probabilities  are  not  on  the  side  of  some 
form  of  affusion.  This  mode  is  consonant  with  the  liberal 
and  pliant  nature  of  Christianity,  which,  if  immersion  alone 


NOTES.  93 

were  valid,  could  not  bestow  its  great  initiating  rite  on  the 
sick,  on  prisoners,  on  people  at  sea,  in  desert  places,  and  in 
latitudes  of  extreme  frost." — Dr.  Adams'  Pitt  Street  Chaiyel 
Lecture. 

In  all  ages  of  the  Gospel,  in  all  countries,  different  modes 
of  administering  baptism  are  found.  Three  modes  are 
mentioned  as  now  practiced.  Others  might  have  been  added 
from  the  Oriental  and  Latin  Churches.  From  the  great  and 
complete  work  of  Hodges,  "  Baptism  tested  by  Scripture 
AND  History,"  which  I  had  not  seen  when  "  The  Talks" 
were  written,  a  few  abridged  historical  instances  are  here 
given  of  various  modes  at  different  times  and  places,  starting 
from  the  age  of  the  Reformation,  and  going  back  to  that  of 
the  Apostolic  period. 

The  FORM  of  words  employed  in  Christian  baptism  has 
ever  and  everywhere  remained  the  same  as  prescribed  by  the 
Lord  himself.  MODE  He  prescribed  none  ;  therefore  it  has 
necessarily  varied  with  varying  circumstances. 

In  1536,  A.D.,  Calvin  in  Geneva. 

"  The  minister  of  Baptism  pours  water  on  the  infant, 
saying,  &c." 

It  may  be  well  to  remark  here,  that  then,  in  the  old 
Christian  countries  there  were  no  adults  to  be  baptized  ;  all 
having  been  baptized  in  infancy.  So  is  it  substantially  still 
in  the  Oriental  Churches.  Mar  Yohannon,  when  a  few  years 
since  he  visited  this  country  from  Asia,  told  us  that  he  had 
never  seen  an  adult  baptized.  Nor  is  it  likely  that  Calvin 
had  at  this  date. 

In  his  Institutes  he  tell  us :  "  The  difference  is  of  no  mo- 
ment, whether  he  that  is  baptized  be  dipped  all  over ;  and 
if  so,  whether  thrice  or  once,  or  whether  he  be  only  wetted 
with  the  water  poured  on  him.'''' 

In  1551,  A.D.,  In  Mentz,  Germany,  the  minister  is  to  take 
the  child,  hold  him  over  the  Font,  and  three  times  pour  water 


94  KOTES. 

on  the  head  with  his  right  hand.  Immersion  is  allowed,  but 
pouring  is  preferred  as  better.  Vide  WalVs  Hist.  Bap.\o\.  ii. 
p.  361. 

"  In  1536,  A.D.,  a  Comicil  of  Cologne  refers  to  it  as  a 
matter  of  indifference  whether  the  child  is  thrice  dipped,  or 
wetted  with  water,"  &c. 

In  England,  the  Church  assumes  the  modes  of  baptism  to 
be  a  thing  of  indifference,  and  either  dips  or  pours.  Wick- 
liffe,  the  great  j)reacher  of  the  reformed  doctrines,  one 
hundred  and  fifty  years  before  the  Eeformation,  says  :  "  Nor 
is  it  material  whether  they  be  dipped  once  or  thrice,  or 
water  be  poured  on  their  heads." 

In  1404,  a  French  Synod  decrees  :  "  Let  the  Priest  make 
three  pourings  or  sprinklings  of  water  on  the  infant's  head." 

In  the  thirteenth  century,  an  author  of  the  time  says  : 
"The  way  of  Affusion  is  common  in  France  and  other  places, 
and  was  probably  used  by  the  Apostles :  but  the  way  of 
dipping  is  more  general."  And  this  reminds  me  of  the 
declaration  of  a  learned  author,  that  immersion  as  a  mode  of 
baptism  originated  in  the  dark  ages.  He  says,  "  From  about 
the  year  a.d.  700,  till  about  the  year  1500,  moral  and 
spiritual  darkness  spread  a  gloom  over  the  world.  The  light 
of  revelation  was  almost  extinguished.  .  .  .  Ignorance 
was  almost  universally  prevalent.  .  .  .  During  these 
ages  of  spiritual  desolation,  immersion,  as  a  mode  of  bap- 
tism, had  its  origin."  A  bold  conclusion'?  Well,  let  it  be 
investigated. 

In  the  ninth  and  tenth  centuries,  as  shown  by  pictorial  re- 
presentations, children,  if  able,  standing,  had  the  water  of 
baptism  poured  on  their  head ;  and  men  kneeling. 

In  England,  a.d.  816,  the  people  having  yet  retained  a 
strong  taint  of  the  ancient  Druid  harshness,  the  minister  of 
baptism  was   required   to  dip  the  infant   thi'ee  times  in  the 


NOTES.  95 

font,  "  as  the  Son  of  God  was  thrice  dipped  in  the  ^Yaters  of 
the  Jordan  !"  Waiting  for  the  proof  of  this,  the  little  ones 
were  spared  from  drowning. 

In  the  fifth  century,  the  doctrine  is  held  in  the  East  that 
"  Tliis  word  of  faith  is  so  powerful  in  the  Church  of  God, 
that  by  means  of  her  believing,  offering,  blessing ;  tinging 
with  the  liquid  and  transient  element,  even  in  a  slight  degree^ 
it  cleanses  the  infant,  as  entirely  as  a  large  quantity  would.' 

In  the  latter  part  of  the  fourth  century,  Chrysostom,  of 
Constantinople,  exhorts  to  the  joyful  receiving  of  baptism  in 
the  Church,  and  in  health,  instead  of  waiting  for  the  sor- 
rowing  and  weeping  reception  of  it  on  the  bed  of  death. 

Jerome,  of  Palestine,  who  spent  many  Sundays  of  his 
youth  in  the  Catacombs,  applies  to  baptism  the  prediction  of 
Ezekiel,  "  I  will  sprinkle  clean  water  upon  you." 

In  the  third  century,  Ambrose,  of  ^Milan,  bears  a  like  anti- 
immersion  testimony.  So  also  do  all  the  great  fathers  of 
the  household  of  faith. 

In  the  second  century,  Cyprian  says,  "  The  contagion  of 
Sin  is  not  in  the  Sacrament  of  Salvation  washed  off  by  the 
same  measures  that  the  dirt  of  the  skin  and  the  body  is 
washed  off  in  an  ordinary  secular  bath,  so  that  there  should 
be  necessity  of  soap  and  other  helps,  and  a  large  pool  or 
fishpond,  by  which  that  body  is  washed  or  cleansed.  It  is  in 
another  way  that  the  heart  of  the  believer  is  washed — after 
another  manner  that  the  mind  of  a  man  is  by  faith  cleansed. 
In  the  Sacrament  of  Salvation,  where  necessity  compels,  the 
shortest  ways  of  transacting  Divine  matters  do,  by  God's 
gracious  Dispensation,  confer  the  whole  benefit. 

And  no  man  need,  therefore,  think  otherwise,  because 
these  sick  people,  when  they  receive  the  grace  of  Our  Lord, 
have  nothing  but  an  affusion  or  sprinkling  ;  whereas  the  Holy 
Scriptures,  by  the  Prophet  Ezekiel,  says, 'I  shall  sprinkle 


96  NOTES. 

clean   water  upon    you,  and    you   shall   be  clean,"     Ezek. 
36:  25. 

He  also  says  that  "  none  such  may  here  baptized ;"  that 
the  Holy  Spirit  is  not  given  by  several  measures,  but  is 
wholly  poured  on  them  that  believe." 

Shortly  before  his  martyrdom,  Laurentius  (St.  Lawrence) 
baptized  Lucillus  with  a  pitcher  of  water. 

Novatian  was  baptized  by  affusion  as  he  lay  on  his  sick 
bed. 

Origen  represents  the  wood  on  the  altar,  over  which  water 
was  poured,  at  the  command  of  Elijah  (1  Kings,  xviii.  33), 
as  having  been  "  baptized,"  and  speaks  of  each  pouring  as  a 
baptism. 

Tertullian  applies  the  word  "sprinkling"  to  the  act  of 
baptism. 

Still  nearer  to  the  Apostolic  age,  Clemens  Alexandrinus  calls 
wetting  with  tears  baptism.  Of  a  backslider  whom  St.  John 
reclaimed,  he  says :  "  He  was  baptized  a  second  time  with 
tears." 

Justin  Martyr,  born  in  the  Apostolic  age,  also  bears  plain 
testimony  against  the  exclusive  theory  of  the  Baptists,  by 
the  use  of  the  word  baptize,  as  do  all  the  Apostles,  in  a 
generic  sense. 

This  ancient  and  golden  chain  of  proofs  is  employed  here, 
not  more  to  establish  my  positions  in  the  talks,  than  to 
point  my  readers,  who  would  master  the  subject,  to  the 
masteririg  work  of  Hodges. 

Let  no  anti-immersion  Pedo-Baptist  minister  think  it  too 
large  or  costly.  If  not  only  unchurched,  but  also  un- 
christened,  we  ought  to  "  know  the  reason  why." 


NOTES.  97 

Note  S. — Modest  and  quiet  Spirit. 

"  Some  think  immersions  are  not  always  decent." 
Page  41. 

^''That  which  is  indecent^  can  not  he  the  only  mode  ofhap- 
tism.  In  Christ's  Kingdom  'all  things'  must  'be  done 
decently  and  in  order.'  But  in  immersion  are  many  tilings 
so  indecent,  that  to  them,  modest  females  could  not  easily 
be  induced  to  submit,  if  their  minds  were  pointedly  di- 
rected to  them."  Following  this  remark,  the  author  of 
the  book — Bible  Baptism: — enumerates  several  indecen- 
cies, common^  he  says,  in  immersions  of  females,  which 
must  here  be  omitted.  The  subject  he  thus  dismisses  : 
"  Such  indecent  practices  can  not  be  indispensable  to  an 
ordinance  of  Christ's  Church,  where. all  things  must  be 
done  decently,  as  well  as  in  order.  Many  indecencies,  for- 
merly practiced  by  immersers,  are  too  gross  to  be  men- 
tioned here." 

Yet  a  very  plain-spoken  man  is  Mr.  Quaw  ;  with  appar- 
ently very  small  respect  for  the  doctrine  of  reserve. 

In  Buck's  Dictionary  there  is  also  allusion  made  to  the 
indecency  of  immersion ;  "  too  indecent  for  so  solemn  an  or- 
dinance f — and  that  "it  has  a  tendency  to  agitate  the 
spirits,  often  rendering  the  subject  unfit  for  the  exercise 
of  proper  thoughts  and  affections." 

XoTE  "Y.—Rev.  Mr.  SijJces. 

"  A  quadruped  is  not  necessarily  a  horse."     Page  44. 

And  yet  just  as  necessarily  as  that  a  generic  word  always 
means  the  same  thing.  But  our  Baptist  brethren  insist 
that  the  word  used  in  the  New  Testament  to  express  tlie 
ordinance  of  baptism.,  "  never  signifies  any  thing  less  than 
immersion !" 

Hear  the  Boston  Baptist  champion.  Rev.  Mr.  Sykes,  in 
his  "  Pitt  Street  Chapel  Lecture  :  " 


98  NOTES. 

Having  quoted  Ernesti's  authority  for  "  affixing  a  par- 
ticular sense  to  a  word  ;  which  MUST  BE  ONE,"  he  says, 
of  the  word  baptism^  "  Which,  then,  is  the  one  sense  ?  Is 
it  sprinkling  ?     No  one  has  claimed  so  much  as  that." 

Quite  a  mistake,  Mr.  Sykes.  The  learned  QUAW,  in  his 
"  Bible  Baptism,"  does  claim  so  much  as  that,  and  makes 
out  a  strong  case  to  supiDort  the  claim.  The  champion 
again  :  "  No  one  has  yet  accepted  the  challenge  of  Dr.  Car- 
son, and  proved  that  the  word  used  in  the  New  Testament 
(Baptizo) ,  to  express  this  ordinance,  is  ever  used  to  signify 
any  thing  less  than  immersion  ! ! !  "  How  bolder  than  a 
lion  is  this  indomitable  champion  ! 

Mr.  Sykes  and  Dr.  Carson  belong  to  the  classes  of  the 
unconquerable  and  unkillable,  and  would  keep  in  a  perpe- 
tual fight  the  battler,  of  whom  it  is  said : — 

"  Thrice  he  conquered  all  his  foes, 
And  thrice  he  slew  the  slain." 

Not  three,  but  three  hundred  times,  and  more,  has  the 
Baptist  notion  of  the  exclusive  meaning  of  this  word  been 
proved  utterly  absurd. 

If  any  reader  of  this  little  book  should  need  further  light 
to  discern  its  utter  absurdity,  they  may  find  it  abundant 
in  FuLLEK,  Hodges,  Quaw,  Bickeksteth,  etc.,  and,  be- 
yond all,  and  above  all,  in  the  NEW  TESTAMENT. 

Note  TJ. — Baptism  of  Tears. 

"  Divers  Baptisms."     Page  46. 

Athanasius  reckons  up  eight  baptisms,  and  the  sixth  in 
his  enmneration  is  that  of  "  tears." 

Gregory  Nazianzen  uses  similar  language,  saying,  "  I 
know  of  a  fourth  baptism — that  of  martyrdom  and  blood  ; 
and  I  know  of  a  fifth — that  of  tears."  He  refers  also  to 
baptism  at  the  point  of  death,  when  immersion  could  not 
be  often,  if  ever,  practicable. — Hodges. 


NOTES,  yy 

KoTE  V. — Purification. 

"  Sprinkle  water  of  purifyiog  upon  them.  "     Page  48. 

"  There  arose  a  question  " — a  dispute — "  between  some 
of  John's  disciples  and  the  Jews  Dhont  ^mr if ^i?}(/.  And 
they  came  unto  John,  and  said  unto  him,  Rabbi,  he  that 
was  with  thee  beyond  Jordan,  to  whom  thou  barest  wit- 
ness, the  same  baptizeth,  and  all  men  come  to  him." — 
John,  iii.  25,  26. 

Here  is  found  purifying  and  baptizing  so  brought  togeth- 
er as  strongly  to  intimate  that  the  baptisms,  both  by  John 
and  the  followers  of  Jesus — ^'  He  baptized  not " — were  not 
at  all  of  the  spiritual  character  of  tlie  Christian  baptism 
on  and  after  the  day  of  Pentecost,  but  of  that  of  the  an- 
cient Levitical  purifications;  therefore,  of  course,  by 
sprlnJcling. —  Vide  Hodges  at  large. 

Note  W. — Forlcs. 

"  One  of  the  circumstances  not  to  be  lost  sight  of  is, 
that  the  Jews  had  no  forks."     Page  oG. 

Southey,  in  his  ''  Commonplace  Book,"  has  an  extract 
from  an  English  traveler  in  Italy,  which  states  the  sup- 
posed first  introduction  of  forks  into  England  so  late  as 
1609!  Can  it  be  so?  Why  not?  I  have  seen  verg  old 
spoons  ;  but  never  a  verg  old  fork.  Coryat,  the  traveler, 
says,  "  I  observed  a  custom,  in  all  those  Italian  cities  and 
towns  through  which  I  passed,  that  is  not  used  in  any  other 
country  that  I  saw  in  my  travels  ;  neither  do  I  think  that 
any  other  nation  of  Christendom  doth  use  it,  but  only  Italy. 
They  use  a  little  fork  when  they  cut  their  meat."  He  ex- 
plains how  it  is.  used,  and  says  the  Italians  took  offense  at 
foreigners  Avho  used  their  fingers  instead  of  forks.  He  then 
adds,  "  This  form  of  feeding  I  understand  is  generally 
used  in  all  places  of  Italy,  their  forks  being  made,  for  the 
most  part,  of  iron  or  steel,  and  some  of  silver.    The  reason 


100  notp:s. 

of  this  their  curiosity  is,  because  the  Italian  can  not  by 
any  means  endure  to  have  his  dish  touched  with  fingers, 
seeing  all  men's  fingers  are  not  alike  clean."  He  thought 
it  an  improvement,  and  provided  himself  with  a  fork  ;  and 
when  he  returned  to  England  was  "  quipped "  by  his 
"  learned  friend,  Mr.  Lawrence  Whitaker,  who  in  his  merry 
humor  called  him  d^.  furcifio\  for  using  a  fork  at  feeding." 

Note  X. — N'o  Immersion. 

"  Fingers  become  tongues  and  cry  out,  '  Xo  immersion 
— ]io  immersion.'  "     Page  57. 

Mr.  Carson,  the  unanswerable,  according  to  Mr.  Sykes, 
thinks  the  case  of  Philip  and  the  eunuch,  "  under  the  most 
violent  persuasion  it  could  sustain  on  the  rack,  would  still 
cry  out,  immersion  !  immersion  !  " 

Is  it  any  wonder  that  the  "  challenge  "  of  such  a  logi- 
cian should  remain  some  time  unaccepted ;  and  even  until 
another  of  the  like  shall  "  turn  up,"  as  willing  to  stultify 
himself  ? 

XoTE  Y.— "  The  Same  Bool:.'' 

"  The  Syriac  New  Testament."     Page  60.     . 

"Among  the  Aramaean  Christians,  the  tradition  is  uni- 
versal and  uniform  everywhere,  that  this  version  was  made 
at  the  time  when  Christianity  was  first  preached,  and  when 
Christian  churches  were  first  established,  in  Syria  and 
Mesopotamia ;  and,  of  course,  that  it  was  made  by  some 
one  or  more  of  the  primitive  Apostles  and  Evangelists,  or 
by  persons  who  were  their  companions  and  associates. 
Some  name  Mark  the  Evangelist ;  others,  Thaddeus,  the 
reputed  Apostle  of  Mesopotamia  ;  others,  Aclueus,  or 
Agheus,  a  pupil  and  immediate  successor  of  Thaddeus. 

"  Anterior  to  the  present  century,  most  of  the  Europeans 
who  gave  attention  to  Syriac  learning,  so  fixr  assented  to 
this  Syrian  tradition  as  to  maintain,  that  the  Peshito  ver- 


NOTES.  101 

sioii  must  have  been  made  either  by  an  Apostle,  or  by 
some  companion  and  assistant  of  the  Apostles." — Appen- 
dix. 

XoTE  Z.—Rev.,  Dr.  Tamer. 

"  Buried  with  Christ  by  Baptism  into  deatli.^^  Boraans., 
yi.  4.     Page  70. 

By  such,  of  course,  as  belieye — or  think  they  believe — 
that  immersion  was  the  most  ancient  mode  of  baptism,  in 
his  learned  and  judicious  exposition  on  the  Epistle  to  the 
Romans,  Doctor  Turner  thus  remarks  on  this  yerse : — 

"  It  has  been  inferred  from  the  fourth  yerse,  that  St.  Paul 
alludes  to  the  ancient  mode  of  baptizing  by  immersion. 
But  this  is  not  supported  by  the  phrase,  which  merely  car- 
ries out  the  figure,  denoting  the  completeness  of  the  spirit- 
ual death  before  mentioned.  And  thus  in  Galatians,  vi.  14, 
bespeaks  of  himself  as  not  only  dead,  but  crucified  to  the 
Avorld  ;  the  excruciating  kind  of  death  amplifying  the  fig- 
ure and  increasing  the  impression." 

As  I  have  gratefully  transcribed  the  whole  of  this  expo- 
sition on  this  sixth  chapter  of  Romans  on  my  heart,  so  I 
can  hardly  keep  my  hand  from  transcribing  it  here  into 
my  book.  I  had  read  it  years  ago,  not  without  profit,  as 
my  own  sketchy  references  to  the  sacred  text  indicate, 
which  gladdens  me  much;  yet  it, seems  a  fair  subject  of 
regret,  that  the  book  was  not  before  me  when  the  answer 
was  attempted  to  the  question,  "  What  St.  Paul  seems  so 
earnest  to  teach." 

I  must  not  deny  myself  wholly  the  privilege  to  take  a 
gem  or  two  of  wise  and  pious  thought  from  this  rich  de- 
posit of  a  much-loved  and  generous  friend  of  old. 

"  The  grace  of  God  through  Christ,  has  in  all  ages  been 
perverted  by  the  corrupt  heart  to  Antinomian  recklessness 
of  living.  The  question  in  yerse  1  may  be  the  language 
of  a  depraved  objector,  or  it  may  be  the  author's  manner 


102  NOTES. 

of  stating  the  mischievous  inference  drawn  from  the  pre- 
vious truth," — abounding  grace, — "  in  the  truly  baptized 
person" — with  the  Holy  Ghost  as  well  as  by  water — 
"such  a  continuance  in  sin  is  simply  impossible,  because 
by  real  Christian  baptism  he  has  become  mystically  united 
to  Christ,  therefore  dead  and  buried  with  Him  to  sin,  with 
a  view  to  a  moral  resurrection,  the  precursor  of  a  physical 
and  spiritual,  and  glorious  one  at  the  last  day." — "  The 
profession  of  Christianity  which  we  publicly  make  in  bap- 
tism, binds  us  to  avoid  sin  and  to  cultivate  holiness." 
2.  "Dead  to  sin  :"  such  figurative  language  is  common  in 
the  Xew  Testament.  Rom.  vii.  4.  "  Dead  to  the  law." 
Eph.  ii.  1 ;  "  dead  in  trespasses  and  sins."  As  it  is  true  of 
figurative  language  in  general,  so  is  it  particularly  true  of 
this,  that  the  expositor  should  be  cautious  not  to  carry  the 
comparison  extravagantly  fiir,  and  "  any  degree  is  extrava- 
gant ichich  becomes  forced  and  unnatiircdP  Let  this  be 
universally  received  as  an  axiom,  as  so  well  merited,  and 
how  it  would  guard  the  general  mind  against  the  mis- 
chievous influences  which  flow  from  the  "  crazy  jumbles  of 
fanaticism  and  folly,"  that  seem  now  more  generally  than 
ever  before  to  be  driving  men  into  all  species  of  madness  ! 
1.  The  state  of  death  implies  a  state  of  insensibility, 
and  is  both  the  duty  and  the  privilege  of  Christians  to  be- 
come in  a  measure  insensible  to,  and  unafiected  by,  the  de- 
lusive charms  of  sin,  so  that  the  man  who  was  once  alive 
to  its  influence  becomes  indiflerent  to  its  most  pressing 
solicitations.  2.  And  as  the  Christian  is  dead  to  sin,  so 
also  is  sin  in  his  view  as  a  dead  object.  The  Apostle  sug- 
gests this  thought  in  verse  6,  where  he  represents  the  "  old 
man"  as  "crucified  with"  Christ,  "that  the  body  of  sin 
might  be  destroyed."  Compare  Gal.  vi.  14,  "  the  world  is 
crucified  unto  me."  As  the  dead  object  can  not  excite 
pleasurable  emotions  and  desires  to  which  when  living  it 
gave  birth,  so  neither  can  sin  in  the  mind  of  the  Christian. 


NOTES.  103 

As,  on  the  contrary,  the  dead  object  excites  the  opposite 
sentiments  or  feelings,  those  namely  of  aversion  and  dis- 
gust ;  so  does  sin  in  the  soul  of  the  true  Christian.  The 
Christian  is  dead  to  sin,  and  sin  is  dead  to  him. 

3.  "So  many  of  us"  (rather,  we  as  many),  "as  were 
baptized  into  Jesus  Christ,  were  baptized  into  his  death." 
What  is  it  to  be  baptized  into  Christ?  or  what  does  true 
Christian  baptism  mean  ?  How  every  thought  of  tnode 
flies  from  the  sound  of  these  questions  ! 

When  John  distinguished  his  own  baptism  fi-om  that  of 
the  Messiah,  whom  he  introduced  by  the  announcement 
that  He  should  "  baptize  with  the  Holy  Ghost  and  with 
fire,"  (Matt.  iii.  11,)  there  can  be  no  doubt  that  the  mira- 
culous efi"usion  of  the  Spirit  on  the  day  of  Pentecost,  when 
the  ability  to  speak  in  unknown  languages  was  conveyed 
under  the  significant  emblem  of  appai'ent  fiery  tongues 
was  intended.     See  Acts,  i.  5  ;  xi.  16. 

But  it  does  not,  therefore,  follow  that  the  Baptist's  lan- 
guage had  no  further  reference.  It  exhibits,  undoubtedly, 
in  striking  contrast,  the  difference  between  his  own  pre- 
liminary and  imperfect  baptism,  and  that  of  the  divine 
one  who  was  "  above  all,"  and  who  "  mu  t  increase  "  un- 
til He  should  receive  again  "that  glory  which  He  had 
wdth  the  Father  before  the  w^orld  was." 

Christ's  baptism  and  Christ's  spirituality  and  divine  na- 
ture are  in  perfect  harmony.  There  is  scarcely  any  con- 
ceivable moral  and  spiritual  elevation  w^hich  may  not  scrip- 
turally  and  reasonably  be  represented  as  the  legitimate 
result  of  Christian  baptism  rightly  and  fully  understood. 
But  it  is  all-important  to  have  a  clear  conception  of  w^hat 
Christian  baptism  is.  To  suppose  that  it  consists  in  the 
immersion  of  the  baptized  party,  or  in  his  affusion  or  as- 
persion with  water  in  the  name  of  the  Holy  Trinity,  and  by 
a  minister  of  Christ  acknowledged  to  be  properly  author- 
ized, would  be  to  form  a  very  imperfect  conception  of  its 


104  NOTES. 

true  nature  and  significancy.  Keal  Christian  baptism  is 
both  internal  and  outward,  and  it  is  most  generally  thus 
represented  in  the  iSTew  Testament. 

In  this  connection,  the  Doctor  quotes  1  St.  Peter,  iii. 
21,  as  "most  instructive;"  and  St.  Paul,  Col.  ii.  11,  "put- 
ing  off  the  body  of  the  sins  of  the  flesh;"  and  Gal.  iii.  27, 
"  putting  on  of  Christ,"  etc. 

Baptism  comprehends  water,  "  the  outward  and  visible 
sign,"  and  also,  "  an  inward  and  spiritual  grace;"  name- 
ly, "  a  death  unto  sin,  and  a  new  birth  unto  righteous- 
ness." It  follows,  therefore,  where  either  of  these  is  want 
ing,  baptism  is  imperfect ;  and  surely  it  can  not  be  ima- 
gined that  the  inward  part  of  the  sacrament  is  less 
important  than  the  outward  ?  But  the  transcribing  hand 
must  be  withheld,  though  rekictant.  Let  these  scattered 
pearls  lead  to  the  richer  pile. 

ISToTE  Zz. — TJie  Baptist  Bible. 

"  The  editor  of  the  second  edition  of  the  Baptist  Bible, 
A.  C.  Kendrick,  intimates  in  his  preface  to  the  New  Tes- 
tament, that  all  the  principal  Pedo-Baptist  commentators 
sustain  his  views  in  relation  to  the  word  baptize.  But  so 
far  are  all  these  commentatoi-s  from  maintaining  that  im- 
mersion is  the  only  mode  of  baptism  (and  this  is  his  view 
on  the  subject),  that  not  one  of  them  adopts  that  opinion. 
It  is  true  that  several  of  them  admit  that  immersion  is  one 
mode  of  baptism ;  but  not  one  of  them  says  or  even  inti- 
mates that  it  is  the  only  mode.  To  make  such  a  state- 
ment then  concerning  those  commentators,  is  a  crime  which 
deserves  a  harsher  name  than  can  be  given  to  it  here.  A 
system  that  can  suffer  its  leading  advocates  thus  delibe- 
rately to  pervert  the  trutli,  and  vilify  the  righteous  dead, 
Avill  need  more  than  one  alteration  in  the  Bible  before  it 
can  pass  current  with  men  of  truth  and  veracity." —  Yide 
Bible  Baptism,  ■^.  ^Q. 


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